On the Wings of Council V2
by TopazSoarhire
Summary: Okay, I thought this whole Journey thing would be a piece of cake, catch some Pokemon, win a badge, and beat you're average Rockets with the combined IQ of my toaster! Next thing you know, I'm jumping off skyscrapers, out running forest fires and dodging
1. WoC1

My head lolled back, gazing lazily through the long crescent shaped olive coloured leaves. Their long shadows cast by the deepening violet sky mottling my olive skin like a girafarigs. I sometimes wondered what kind of tree it was, probably a pepperina tree, but what did I know about botany? I couldn't tell a rose from a carnation. All I cared about was that it was the most perfect climbing tree around, its thick branches sprawling across a dusty orange road with weeping limbs obscuring most of our renovations from view. We had done it up with a swing, rope ladder, wooden platforms and everything topped with a layer of cammo paint.

Why did it need to be so inconspicuous? Well, it wasn't _precisely_ on our property. Ours lay about 15 minutes down the road right on the outskirts of Kyeema Town speckled with Hereford cattle grazing the spinifex.

This tree nestled on a fence line of one Farmer Bucket, a cranky old man, dubbed so because during Spearow breeding season the bird Pokemon would hurtle from the copse of trees just outside his house and the battered plastic red bucket was his only protection. I swear he looked like a reject of the Kelly Gang when they dive-bombed him with their sinister beaks agape. Those scruffy cantankerous birds almost a match for Bucket himself had no qualms attacking 14 year old girls.

We had moved in behind enemy lines because of a nesting pair of Pidgeot had actually come in down from the mountains three years ago and it was an opportunity we just couldn't miss. They would plunge from the air to snap up pesky Nidoran nibbling the buds of his chickpea plants. Why in the name of Mew they would run the gauntlet of beaks and talons just to get some nasty tasting chickpea's was beyond me, but sometimes the prey was one of Bucket's chickens that would graze the fields for cabbage moth larvae.

He had countered this threat with a pair of enormous Arcanine, and they had no qualms about chasing 14 year old girls either. I can't count the number of times they almost caught one of the majestic birds in their snapping teeth, sheering their tail feathers with spit and slobber.

But they were the reason we had risked getting caught.

This season Bucket had left the land fallow, baring the fertile brown soil to the sun. Without any crops the rodents disappeared, and without viable prey the Pidgeot's had nicked into the escarpment that cupped Kyeema Town, yet because of our extensive renovations, we remained in residence able to watch the immense raptors floating on the spiralling thermals in the distance.

I sighed smiling at the thought of them, leaning back into my branch and let one leg swing limply as I scanned the distance. I was on lookout, as always. My own lofty perch provided a three-sixty surveillance without tree branches blocking the view. It was mine simply because I was lightest and able to squeeze through the branch bends to get to it. See, what I also neglected to mention was that the tree also bordered Bucket's storage roads, so his farmhands were always zooming in and out like Yanma. I don't know why, its not like Kyeema had anything they were desperate to rush off and see. I mean could cross from one side to the other in less than ten minutes!

Nothing, a good enough time as any to open the conversation to my favourite topic.

"_Soooo_ training season is opening next week."

"And? Its not like either of us are going anywhere," said a voice glumly from below. I leaned out, eyeing my 'little' brother, sprawled on his back on a platform with his hands behind his head. His spiny black hair hid his expression but I knew it to one of longing. Unlike most siblings, we got on really well. I think it was because although I was older than him by two years, he was a pretty booffy boy.

It meant we had to learn to share early.

"Maybe." Even from the voice you could tell he was grinning. Jarrod always grinned. Just to Scott's left lounging in a hammock of vines just where the main trunk branched out he lay with eyes half closed. He was just a lay back kinda kid. Being oldest by a year, he claimed it straight away, but as far as I was concerned, he could have it. I sampled it and thick woody thorns left numerous punctures but he barely came out with a scratch. "But who are you root'n for in the championships?"

"Brutus!" bawled Matty. Almost at level with me, Matty was hanging upside down his grubby T-shirt dangling over his face, not a worry that he could lose his grip and splatter on the hard compacted dirt below. The kid was Scotty's age and Jazz's brother but was so squirmy you could have sworn there was some Mankey in his veins.

"Nooo!" we all groaned in mock agony, including the last of our little posse and my best mate Jess, their sister whether she liked it or not, but more often not. She rocked the swing with her toes, fingering the vines we had encouraged to grow on the ropes with her face hidden by her blondish hair draping across her face.

"What?" Matty giggled, as if the behemoth whose idea of a battle was raw power, no tactic stood a chance.

"I got an eye on that new electric trainer," Jazz ventured.

"You would!" I jeered. "Shanna is gonna blitz 'em!"

"Phtt!" Scott snorted. "Sez the girl who thinks Clefairy come from space!"

"They do! I read it!" I retorted defensively, and then a little sheepishly added, "Do you think we could make it?"

"Into space?" Jess asked puzzled looking up.

"No-oh, the Championships."

"Course. Its pretty easy," Jazz shrugged.

He had done some amateur training when he was ten, but hadn't even made it to Bimbadeen City at Metone's northern most point, the Woombara Peninsula. The monsoon rains set in and flooded the gorge known as the Devil's Race, as it was treacherously long and narrow like a cattle race and usually remained so from November to February . Jazz being Jazz simply turned back and gave up the idea, even though he could have tried the pass over to Warriwarri city, named after the long caterpillar of ranges that ran down the entire east coast of Metone which really sorted the Wannabee's from the Gonnabee's. It was why I constantly badgered him with questions.

"Easy for you to say," Scott grumbled sitting up. "Tez and I don't have a Pidgey between us!"

I nodded in agreement. Because their family was divorced it meant their father spoiled them rotten. Jess had a docile yet somewhat dim Vaporeon, Matty had a feisty midget of a Flareon and Jazz's companion on his short jaunt had been a Jolteon and his larrikin nature had certainly rubbed off on it.

Our father had also been a trainer in his younger days but kept us firmly shackled from leaving on an amateur journey by not keeping Pokemon as a pets. Don't get me wrong, he'd love us to follow in his footsteps but when he began with an injured Rattata, he quickly found out that without a properly registered and trained beginning Pokemon it was just too difficult.

He knew what was best, I guess, but you could never trust an adult's real motives in my opinion! Sneaky as Ekan's they were.

Out the corner of my eye I caught a moving dot coming from the farmhouse, hooning at a hundred K's an hour.

"Car!"

Quick as lightning Matty somersaulted to the ground scuttling into the tall grass with Jess and Scott diving for cover after him. Jazz huddled into a ball, blending effortlessly into the leaves and I made a daring leap onto the limb opposite, weaselling into the lower branches and out of clear sight.

The sound of wind and flying gravel grew like a stampede of Tauros and suddenly a sleek chrome bullet shot past in a billowing of wind flicking the rocks into the laneways where we hid and then faded just as quickly. It was a lot of trouble for just two seconds of vulnerability but we were good as dead if we were caught.

From the grass emerged the three, Jess grumbling and picking the twigs out of her hair. She spared a glance at the sky outside our refuge.

"Man we gotta go! I got homework and mum will kill us if she comes home and we aren't there!"

We each added our own colourful description of exactly what we thought of homework. My mates on the ground peeled themselves underneath the barbed wire fencing while I eased myself to the end of the branch clear of hindering limbs and the barbwire fence. I hung by my arms for a moment and dropped heavily onto the grainy red dirt, cringing at the pressure on the balls of my feet and the sharp gravel impeding themselves in my calloused heels.

I looked over my shoulder at the sun setting over the dusty orange dirt road, flecks still dancing in the wake of the farmhands car.

"Well you never know," I whispered, and then hopped after my mates.

**Inka**** Tninka Pitjikala**

My heart skipped a beat.

It was here! Here! Here! Here! Here! Here! The entry form had finally been admitted into the Sunday paper. In my opinion it they probably a hacked down an entire rainforest for a useless stack of paper in boring Times New Roman print, but I was too excited to sit and complain about deforestation as I normally did. Instead I stared at the first page with greedy anticipation. Beneath a large colour photograph of a drunken politician in the bottom corner stamped inside grand red spiky speech bubble was what I drooled over every maths lesson at school.

Every year, the great professors of the all the Leagues offered the chance of a lifetime, the chance to become one of the 10 official Pokemon trainers of The League Amalgamation Competition. Three random Professors would preside, bolstering the beginning Pokemon of their own League. Of course there was the usual three kids they chose themselves for their own League just before training season started, but this one had so much more prestige. An _Official_ trainer!

Plus the Metone League's own Professor Bean was a tad, well, eccentric, he hadn't represented the Metone league in over 4 years and a Metonian hadn't been amongst the ten in seven years. We had no famous trainers that put us on the map, like Lorelei Drift, Ash Ketchum, Hiro Nakajima or May Ulysses. I mean, barely anyone ever heard of us, and when they did, they usually asked a stupid question like, Do we get milk all year round, or You mean you really have electricity? Jeeze, its not like we were in the Stone age!

I gazed across the rest of Kyeema, partially hidden by a slab of rock jabbing out from the escarpment, at their mundane houses with their nifty little gardens and gravel driveways and cute little mailboxes in the shapes of Goldeen and Miltanks. Like a bolt of lightning the yearning to journey struck me down.

I could leave this behind and see the world, a world beyond everything I knew; if I could sneak it into the house without dad pinching it to read the fishing foldout first.

I bent down and tucked the soggy cling-wrapped mass under my armpit eager to get my bare feet out of the dew-drenched grass. And face it, we had a _looooong_ driveway!

Feeling incredibly devious, I ducked beneath the windows and slipped through our security door, closing it softly, wincing at the click it made when the tumbler relocked it. I peeked around the arch leading into the lounge room. Dad was lazing in his armchair with his feet propped on a beanbag, grumbling about the weather. I think I got most my looks from him; I certainly got his height- which is to say about an inch of the floor. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration but it's a good deal less then other kids my age.

When I was sure he was properly distracted, I pressed my back against the wall, moving stealthily, mission impossible style.

"Hey Tez! What you got there?" My tanned face blanched a pallid white as my little brother Scotty peered from the kitchen, his spiny black hair riddled with knots and cowlicks from his noisy sleep. His eyes met my 'Stantler caught in road-train headlights' expression and focus on the rolled up newspaper. "You have it?" he said slowly.

"Eep." I broke and ran for the safety of my room, because even though my brother was two years younger then me, he was as big for his age as I was short. He would have no qualms sitting on me until I gave my hard earned prize up.

Oh come on! No one likes waking up at six in the morning so therefore it _is_ hard earned!

Darting down my hall I dived through my bedroom door with Scott blustering after me. I slammed the door shut setting the knickknacks on my shelves jittering noisily and just in time I threw my back against it. His weight crashed into it and the door bucked. Straining, with one leg shoving off my bookshelf I gave it a final shove and the door snapped long enough for me to flip the lock.

"What are you kids doing?" I heard my father bellow, but I didn't care. I jumped onto my bed bouncing with excitement, tearing the paper apart. "Sports section, no. University section, no. Real Estate, no. Comics mmmm… later. Ah-Ha!"

I scrambled through my desk for scissors, paper and pens, returning to my bed jostling the mangled paper. Dad would not be happy. I snipped carefully along the dotted line, and with meticulous care I began to fill out my details.

**Name:** Topaz Soarhire **Gender:** Female

**Age:** 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

I paused at this. Although I had been racing my brother to this every year since I was ten, this was my most eligible year. When kids were ten and eleven years old, they were almost immediately discarded, or awarded them one of those 'we felt sorry for you here's a cap' prizes. As the years past and those same kids had turned 15 and 16, they no longer cared about the excitement of a Journey, probably having more interest in the other parts of life. I ticked fourteen years of age with enthusiasm.

**Pokemon**** License Number:** 482-25686

**Region:** Metone **Town:** Kyeema Town **Address:** 39 Bingaby Road

I paused, that could be a problem. See, Metone technically wasn't apart of the Northern Leagues; in fact it really wasn't apart of anywhere. It was a continent of land to the South East of the Orange Islands. Its centre was a dry and arid red desert where only the hardiest of people could make a living. Thick green rainforests subject to monsoon storms in the north drew tourists from everywhere and coupled with the East Coasts world-renowned surf it was hard to resist. Its south was very polar orientated, frigid mountains and catacombs of caves sneaking in and out and the west coast was a plethora of Pokemon, wondering in and out of the mangrove forests.

Of course it had its own Pokemon League, but I had been all over and wanted to see something new.

Contemplating what to do next, I riffled under the blankets of pages and found my own three pages of 1cm spaced lines, reserved for the required essay the Professors would judge.

"It has to be catchy, interesting, but meaningful. Oh boy how am I gonna do that?" I grumbled. This was the boring part. Finally I jotted down ideas, I formed these ideas into sentences and paragraphs and after only an hour, I had a masterpiece. I read and reread, ignoring Scotty's pounding on the door, his pleading and his bargaining until I was satisfied I was bound to win.

After finishing the thousand-word essay, I sealed it in one of the envelopes from my mountains of stationary I always got for my birthday along with my entry form. I looked at it with pride, and reluctance. I knew that it would be a long, long wait until I received a reply.

There's only one adjective to describe the eight weeks that followed.

Torture.

Even knowing that kids my age were feeling the same anxiousness as I was didn't quell the anticipation. I barely thought or talked of anything else so much that my friends were sick of me and had threatened that if the word journey popped out of my mouth again; they would hang me in a tree by my dacks. But I sympathised, my attention span was shot to nothing and my teachers could only persevere. I wasn't the only kid who'd entered and only our Pokemon subject teachers were able to hold our concentration for more then a minute.

The weeks passed at snails pace. I watched the evening news for the clues that Professor Oak, the chief judge would give, but his answers were always sly and ambiguous. Professor Ivy would babble enthusiastically about nothing and Professor Elm would smile secretively and wish every entrant good luck.

And Professor Bean on the local news? Well he would mumbled incoherently and chuckle, nasal snoring sounds that just made you shake your head and wonder way the Metone government employed him if they couldn't understand him a word he said.

Everyday when I got off the bus I pawed through our mail like a furret and when it yielded nothing I sulked in my room for an hour or two until my mother's meals cheered me up. If I've learnt anything in my fourteen years of life that time travels slowest when you're waiting.

"We're home!" I yelled as both Scott and I squeezed through the door at the same time. I rolled my eyes at him as he passed and he poked his tongue right back. No car was in the driveway so our parents were still at work. Like every day I went through the daily ritual of flipping through the mail but as it sat on the counter ready for me to mangle it. It looked nothing more then bills and junk mail. I sighed with irritation as I tossed each back into the fruit bowl.

"Bill, advertisement, junk, junk, junk… Bonza!"

There it was, the envelope that would make or break me. It looked no different then it had any other year. The stamp of Lance of the Elite Four and his Dragonite in the top right corner, the crisp crystal blue stationery and the neatly typed address on the back.

You know how they say in books that their heart sunk, well mine rather deflated like a balloon. I leaned on the counter gazing at it sceptically, or was it dread? It didn't look like the letter of a winner; it didn't even look like the winner of a 'We feel sorry for you, here's a cap' letter! I ambled back to my bedroom and sprawled over my bed, carefully slitting the envelope open and removed the Pokemon patterned stationary.

Hello Topaz Soarhire

Thank you for your entry in the Trainers Challenge... Impressive and moving essay ... Accepted into...Sheet enclosed... Good Luck

"Yeah yeah," I muttered glumly, tossing it over my shoulder… Hang on! My mind warped and I made a wild jump after it, tumbling off my bed as I grasped it and read more carefully.

Hello Topaz

Thank you for your entry in the Trainers Challenge. Your essay was an impressive and moving essay. It was easy to tell it was written from the heart and so it is our pleasure to inform you that Professor Oak, Professor Ivy and Professor Elm have accepted your extraordinary essay into the lucky ten. All information on when and where you can pick up your prize is on the enclosed sheet. Good luck in attending and hope to see you soon.

Melissa Hobbs

Melissa Hobbs

Pokemon League Chancellor

I leapt from my bed and whooped an almighty victory cry at the absurdly short an impersonal letter, dancing and wagging my bum all over the place. I was in shock, I was in ecstasy, I was outta here! Scotty rounded the corner sliding in his schools socks and swinging through the door with a puzzled expression.

"Jeeze, she's finally flipped her lid," he shook his head as I yipped again starting back to his room.

"Read it and weep!" I gloated, holding it out in outstretched hands as I sprung up and down on my bed. The springs were creaking in high pitched protest.

"What!" he blurted, grasping the crinkled sheet it disbelief. "That's so not fair! Your gonna have to tell mum and dad you're leaving."

"Come on, you know they'll let me, they probably can't wait to get out of the house! Less food to buy, less clothing, won't have to run me into town," I stopped rattling of reasons for a second pausing my bounces until it was just the recoil of the bedsprings moving me up and down. My parents were your average, 'have you done this or that' parents, sometimes irrational in their parent logic, but for most part loving and concerned for me. My mother was more peevish, wishing I was more girlish but dad would be rooting all the way. "You think?"

That night I lay in bed pondering the afternoon's episode. I had been subtle and carefully resealed the envelope leaving it under our dining room table as if it had slipped in my excitement and not noticed, just to see their reactions to it. Well, it wasn't exactly how I'd pictured it.

I was lying on the couch within view when Mum spotted it. Her cheery humming went into a quizzical silent as she stared at the envelope. She glanced over at me but my gaze was fixed firmly on those dumb Ash Ketchum cartoons.

Sure, he was top of the League, but there was no way his journey could have been that corny. Every episode was the bloody same. Help! Save me! Save my Pokemon! Oh no Team Rocket! And of course the Coup-de-gras, _Thundershock__ Pikachu!_ Blah, but that was not my problem…

Using my blurry peripheral vision I tried to discern what was on her mind.

"Neil," she called. I don't know how she did it, but it was perfectly casual and had I not known I would have been none the wiser. She strolled nonchalantly to the door, discreetly hiding the envelope behind her leg as she moved and leaned out. "Neil!"

Dad ambled from his tool shed; he was always working on whatnot. I've always been very close to my dad, maybe it's because I'm not you're average girl. Every year we would have four major camping trips –and when my dad said rough it, he meant it- I was always right there with him. I'm pretty tomboyish I guess.

Dad was in view of the envelope, having seen it many time before and the two quietly edged behind me, still watching the Pikachu as if indifferent and the slitting of the tab was hidden behind its loud '_"Chaaaa_!' as it loosed its customary thundershock to end the episode.

"Um, Topaz," my dad said. I swivelled around and I could read in my mother's disappointed expression behind her dark eyes. Forcing down my own disappointment at her disappointment I stared with my usually weary expression after a school day but my father was on cloud nine. He held up the powder blue stationary by its corner between his middle and ring finger. He grinned toothily with pride.

We argued, well argued isn't the right word, more like debated the pros and cons of my journey, mum submitting the cons and dad and I forwarding the pro's but as much as she didn't like the idea of me leaving they agreed it was the opportunity of a lifetime. Their only concession was that while on the road I still had to do my school studies via correspondence, but that was becoming more and more popular these days so I wouldn't be left like a shag on a rock if I had trouble with a maths class.

One of my few talents is memorising completely useless bits of information in a short period of time, like the Pokerap. I had that down pat within a day or two and now I used that skill to know the sheet by heart by the time the lights went out.

The information sheets said that I would be picking up my prize at a small ceremony in New Bark Town, Johto, a fortnight from now, where this years winners would Journey. The year before it was the Janera League and the year before that Tintia. I would have to go through various pre-journey classes that ranged from food rationing, to battle etiquette to caring for your Pokemon. Each was essential to the skills in the outside world, but I was confident I'd fly through them with my camping experiences under my belt. Believe me, some of them were pretty horrendous.

My thoughts lingered on the word prize. It was everything the beginner trainer could beg for, it was the perks of 'an Official Trainer.'Other kids who began just with a Pokemon given by their parents or found their own simply had to fund their initial pack themselves. That was all the help the League would give us. Mind you, it was nothing to sneer at, not by a long shot.

A backpack that could probably pack a Snorlax in properly if you folded it right, twenty Pokeballs, ten Greatballs, 2 Ultraballs, an elusive Masterball that would be available to us only when we had earned a certain badge –a Masterball in the hands of a rookie is something to worry about. A state of the art Pokedex was also available, cell phone, collapsible bike, potions, revives, antidotes, maps and a voucher for free registration in the Johto League, this years host.

Sure, the pack was absolute legend but that was not the thing longed for most. A Pokemon. The idea of someone who will stick with you no matter what, and all that nostalgic stuff.

I had the choice of ten different Pokemon from all parts of the globe. The two grass types, Bulbasaur and Chikorita, the fire duo Charmander and Cyndaquil, Totodile and Squirtle the water Pokemon, the thundering dynamos Mareep and Pichu or the baby Pokemon Cleffa and Igglybuff.

"Which one," I mused to myself as my eyelids began to close. Each had its strengths and weaknesses, each had its likes and dislikes, each would have valid opinions and feelings that I had to be in tune with. Which one?

Once again the waiting was there, and this time that single thought tumble through my head again and again. Countless time I was doodling in the margins of my last days in a real school and they had taken the shape of a very creative Pokemon, something with wings, claws teeth and fins all at once. I already knew I wanted either a water type, or an electric type, water being the preference since while travelling Johto it was the intermediate of the five types available.

See, I did do some study!

At one point I was even interviewed on T.V, being the first Metonian in seven years to embody the spirit of her wide brown land. I stuttered and tripped my way through it, knowing I was probably looking like a country hick, but believe me, you could make far more sense out of my dribble than anyone could out of Professor Bean who had gestured wildly. No one had a clue.

But for most part I spent the time out of school and pre-journey classes with my friends and family, who knew when I would see them again? I think Jarrod was just about ready to strangle me as the last week ticked away but it didn't stop my eager questions. Mum was giving me doom and gloom incessantly and every night dad would give advice, the good, the bad and the ugly of training. What Gym battles were like and how to deal with cocky trainers.

_"Womp their arse!"_ He exclaimed excitedly, slamming his fist on the kitchen bench as I leaned over it.

Scotty still sulked occasionally, but he had at least given up on trying to convince me to let him go in my place. Yeah right! Jess actually considered following me on the journey, but when Jazz said that a large part of it was being hungry, she cast a sidelong look at Vaporeon and scoffed at the idea of journeying all together. Jess and hungry rarely mixed.

But right then, I sat with Jarrod on the bench at Settler's Park, the fields supposed to be a soccer field was regularly transformed into a battle field and it was where Jazz and I spent a good deal of our time.

"Kay," I said, staring speculatively at the trainer on the left, a boy of about sixteen and matted green hair, obviously from out of town, maybe even a foreigner judging his fair skin. Trainers rarely came through Kyeema, because not only wasn't it out of the official trainer route but it was cut off by the Acubra forest and the Kinta river system. Either way he leaned to one side grinning arrogantly as he sent a blubbery, bubbly white Pokemon, with a horn on its head and flippers. "Wassat?"

Jazz without turning away from that battle muttered patiently, "Seel, from the Kanto Region."

"_That's_ a Seel? You said they were round little blue balls."

"No, that's Spheal, from Hoenn."

The challenging trainer was a local, Trev of equal age but a good deal bulkier and I had a fair idea why he didn't want to Journey. He wasn't particularly pleasant, but we went to different schools in town in Yarabee, a good two hours away by bus so I didn't really care to find out. He was busy talking up his Cheeron, a small local Pokemon with cocoa brown fur, large cupped ears twisting anxiously and black and white bands down its slightly hunched back. Its bristly, well muscled tail that seemed to big for it swished back and forth, usually used to support them as they swung upside down from trees as it listened, smiling placidly, its small blunt nose twitching at the scent of its opponent. It was just a normal type and a bit of a pest when the mulberry bush down the back was in fruit, so I didn't really think it had a chance against the outsider's Pokemon.

"Okay, I'm going for the Seel," I said finally, listening vaguely to the usual banter shared by trainers trying to intimidate each other.

Jazz smirked, "Good, cos I'm going for Cheeron."

I blinked quizzically but focused on the match, suddenly begun. Cheeron waddled forward, head turning left and right as the Seel humped its way to meet him. I sighed, resting my elbow on my knee and looking over my shoulder. Jazz's Jolteon napped beneath a branching tree with Vaporeon and Jess while the boys and Flareon chased each other up and down the playground, Scotty gripping the sides of the sun heated slippery dip blocking Matty as he tried to run up right to the bottom, Flareon flicking sand between its legs into the dip. When I turned back around the two still hadn't reached the middle. This was gonna take a while.

Noticing my boredom, Jazz grinned. "Don't worry, it'll start soon enough."

He was correct, barely past the first quarter the Seel fired a sparkling ray, glittery with ice crystals from the top of its horn. Aurorabeam I guessed and what a doozy! The Cheeron uttered a shrill squeak, curling into a ball baring its bristling banded fur. "Done for!" I hissed to my mate.

"Nu-uh, Defence Curl," said he said knowingly. I didn't see how, the rodent was electrified inside a many-rayed star of white opaline light, droplets of ice weighing down Cheeron's long wiry whiskers exposed to the outside. They trembled violently.

"Seel Seel!" clapped the Seel, panting heavily, rolling its blubbery hurriedly to finish off the job with head bowed. Its opponent still remained adamantly furled and like a circus trained Pokemon the Seel nudged it on to its nose, batting it up and down between its tail and horn, hooting merrily. It trainer whooped triumphantly while Trev looked dismayed, shouting for it to Rest but the black and white ball bounced up and down like an clowns juggling balls, completely inert.

With an extra loud honk the Seel flung Cheeron up into the air extra hard. This was it! The bet was mine! Suddenly in mid air the ball split apart with a spray of ice crystals. Its black beady eyes glinting craftily, and while spinning its plump bald tail swung down like a vengeful golf stick and struck Seel senseless, rolling clumsily across the ground and out for the count.

"How did you know that!" I burst out, drawing the attention of both trainers while the foreigner picked up his Pokemon, petting it soothingly before returning it to its ball. He would now have to see Harry. Since Kyeema was too small for a PokeCentre, Harry was the next best thing with some of his bizarre potion concoctions and a rest, all for free, the considerate old man. He also tended many of the wild Pokemon and I had known him to give out Pokemon to beginners. I had tried to wheedle one out of him but dad put a stop to it quick smart.

"Easy," Jazz grinned, standing up and glancing at his watch. He waved the others over, indicating it was late and we were homeward bound.

"That doesn't answer the question," I muttered sulkily. "How am I meant to be a trainer if I can't even judge whether a Pokemon win or not."

Jazz gave my shoulder a quick reassuring squeeze and I looked at him as if he had a pineapple growing out of his ear. Emotions and caring was _not _a big part of our little group. In fact the display of anything other than _that hurt_ usually resulted in a thump on the shoulder and being dogpilled. Come to think of it, even _that hurt_ could do that.

"I was joking, I didn't know, I just took a guess. Trev has been training that thing for three years, and it should have evolved into Arcon long ago. The kid just misjudged that. Don't worry, Pokemon is a thing you learn over time." He bent down to scratch behind Jolteon's ear who had trotted up with his infectious grin only he and his trainer could pull off. "And it's pretty hard to learn if you don't have one, ay Daunt?"

Daunt yipped in affirmation, bounding ahead with Matty's Flareon nipping at its heels, its bushy yellow tail wagging from side to side.

"Notch up another win to me, Scotty," Jazz said over his shoulder to Scotty, tugging on his thongs.

"Right, 7 to 12, this week," he said happily. "See Topaz, you just don't have the knack, you really should let me go in your place!"

"Get real!" I laughed. "Race yis home!"

Then, on the night before I left mum and dad chucked a huge _surprise_ party, noting the sarcasm at the word surprise. Surprises are highly overrated and no matter how careful they were, they couldn't keep me from prying around corners and shuffling through draws. When caught I'd only grin mareepishly.

With mates from school it was a bonfire bash and even a couple of fireworks which dad had gotten from somewhere or other. How he managed to keep his head on his shoulders, and knowing where his skills in cooking lay I had no idea how. The flames were quickly extinguished and we all gazed up into the night sky bursting with reds and yellows and greens like comet tails drifting to earth. After a round of prezzies, most of which were practical uses, and somehow still receiving the same socks and soaps and stationary I _aaaaalllwaaysss_ got on my birthday or at Christmas. Even so my face was plastered with an imperishable grin that lasted long after the guests left and even as my eyes slowly shut.

_"Beep-dibeep_!_ Beep-dibeep! Beep-dibeep!_ "

I raised my head of my pillow to see the numbers 6:00 flashing in neon red lights in the centre of a Snorlax's paunch. It buzzed and buzzed and buzzed as I stared at it dully.

"Bloody hell," I muttered to myself, slapping the button grumpily. Even on such an exciting day I couldn't be morning person. Morning people always tend to be obnoxiously happy for the rest of the day and nothing was gonna change me into one of _those_. It is only on the rarest of occasions did I get up of my own freewill before 8:30 and if so, it's usually to watch cartoons.

As I peeled back the covers, and rolled onto my feet I realised that my well-loved cartoons would only be watched at a PokeCenter.

This journey stuff it seemed did have its downsides.

Kneeling in front of my full-length mirror I pulled my extraordinarily long raven blue hair into a ponyta tail with a Pokeball studded band and dragged on my new Pokemon uniform. It was far from my practical tastes, but I felt that if I wanted to be treated like a trainer, you had to look like a trainer, and that meant eccentric.

The top was a blue, swimsuit like shirt, slightly clingy with polished oval stones on my shoulders and at my waist, where a wedge missing bearing skin ran from about an inch below my sternum and along my ribs ending just below my belly button. Below were baggy dark blue denim jeans and brown suspenders I let dangle by my knees. On my hands were slate-blue fingerless gloves, with slender gunmetal grey chains attached to elbow bands and my legs were white ruffled leg warmers held in place with blue knee bands emblazoned with the Earth symbol. To top it off were my comfortable red trainers.

I looked like a professional, or at least crazy enough not to be messed with.

But something was missing

"Watch!" I frowned as I searched my room for it. I tossed bits and pieces aside and rummaged through the draws till it looked like a Gyarados had come and used its Dragon Rage, but then again, maybe it was worse.

"Ahem," a voice coughed behind me I turned to see Scott dangling the watch.

"Heh heh," I chuckled embarrassed as he glanced at the state of my room. "Left it in the bathroom again?"

Scott nodded, he wandering in and making room on my bed to sit. He sighed enviously; looking at the bag I had packed about a week in advance in my excitement. "Have you decided on what Pokemon your going to choose?"

"I've narrowed it down to Totodile, Charmander or Mareep," I answered, pulling the strap tight around my wrist. I chewed my lip and looked around. I didn't want to leave anything behind because if I did it was over a continent away and I wouldn't be coming back for a long time.

"Time to go Topaz," my mothers voice rang from the lounge. I looked at the comforts of my room, the recognition that I wouldn't see my childhood toys and photographs for a long time hit home. It was depressing and I hated being depressed.

"Don't worry, I'll clean it up." I screwed my face up, almost forgetting he was there.

"More like clean it out so you can have it," I joked. "I'll call you as soon as I get my new Pokemon!"

"Topaz!"

"Coming mum," I sighed as I tugged the massively overcrowded bag onto my back. I stumbled and staggered until I got my balance, cringing at the thought that this was going to be on my back almost 24/7. When stood upright I whispered slyly. "I'll send ya a Pokemon as soon as you get your license!" –_ Which could be anywhere from __1__ to 6 years,_ I added silently

"Wait! I gotta say good by to day!" I yelled along the hallway, running out onto the back veranda and clearing the steps. I hurried into dads shed, and under normal circumstances I would have been a little apprehensive of some out of control power tool running amuck. Instead I burst in. We had to travel into Yarabee, a two-hour drive west and dad had work, so he wouldn't be able to see the place off.

"HEY!" Dad jumped out from behind a cupboard with his welding mask tipped back, startling me into crying out.

"Jeeze dad, don't _do_ that!" I breathed, huffing with eyes wide. Just a little note, I hate loud noises, despise them. Finally recovering from the scare I looked around his workbench cluttered with hammers. "Whatcha make'n dad?"

"A wingwong for a goosey's bridle," he chuckled, a little sadly. My nose wrinkled at one of his most common maxims if ever I asked that precise question. I could never figure out what that meant.

"No, really?"

His eyes gleamed deviously. "This!" From behind his back he whipped out a small elongated box, beautifully emblazoned with polished stones and gold fluting and scrolled in gold were the words_ Inka tninka pitjikala_.

"My gawd dad!" I gasped, flipping the hinge. Inside it was inlaid with pale blue satin over the top of what must have been foam underlay. "Hey! It works!"

"Of course it works," he said indignantly, but still grinning from ear to ear. "It's for your badges you earn."

"Thanks heaps dad," I laughed, wrapping my arms around his neck with a strong hug.

"Heh, careful, don't want to snap my neck, eh boxer? Quick, get going or you'll miss the plane. We're already cutting it close. "

"Love you heaps, see you!" I raced around the side of the house, bounding through the open door of the care up beside mum. I could barely contain my excitement on the way to Yarrabee, not that you could tell. I've always been real quiet in car ride, maybe cause there always so long. Mum hugged and kissed me as I stood before the plane, feeling awfully melancholy but eventually boarded. I laughed aloud at her madly waving arms through the port window.

The propellers began to spin with a muffled _chop-chip-chop-chip, _rolling down the runway and my mum was forced to stand back. I peered through the window as she grew smaller and smaller and as the plane lifted off the ground, vanished altogether. I leaned back into the chair, my heart empty and my mind full. I remember little of the actual flight, snoozy part of the way, that is until the little snot behind got the bright idea to kick the back of my chair to the rhythm of the in-flight movie's soundtrack. Finally it got too much and I leapt to my feet to wring his scrawny little neck but his wide girthed mother intervened with a dark glare. That's justice for you people.

After trying, sleep was futile, the bloke beside me snored like a rusty old train.

I read my trainers guide, or more likely, read 'through' my guide, you know how you read but you don't read stuff? Usually school textbooks, but either way I mused the words of another of my fathers maxims, now delicately carved into the box in my hand.

_Inka__ tninka pitjikala._

_A thousand feet._

The lines of an old song we usually sung around the campfire on family trips and I hummed the chorus in my head a little sadly.

_Take your time_

_Take a look around_

_Cos__ all the signs_

_Are on the ground_

_Serviper__, Doduo_

_Pikachu_

_And ancient man_

_Has been here too._

The lyrics lulled me into a melancholy state of mind. What it meant to between us was that whatever happened, there have been people before me who have gone through exactly the same thing and survived. There would be people after me who would survive. It was comforting in the whole, I'm one insignificant ant of a person in an infinite universe kinda way.

Okay, maybe not as comforting as dad intended.

So immersed was in that single thought that I finally looked up, we bumped along the tiny runway of New Bark Town

_Heyhey__! I'm back! Turns out I'm deleting all the lyrics from my FF stories. No worries, eh? The edited version of Inka Tninka Pitjikala are by an Aussie country singer called John Williamson. I wonder if that counts? Hooroo, enjoy!_


	2. WoC2

_Thanks for reading guys, I did a stuff up posting the chapter that was meant for my website, so that's why it has Home, Authors notes and such._

**_Thanks RaNdOm TeXt, _**_nice to see you back if you've read my other stuff. I'm really quite proud with how it came out, like you said, much more flow._

**_Thanks Hannah, _**_I'm going to keep the old version still up, in case people want to read it, but this is my good copy, I hope!_

**_Thanks Tjal,_**_ Nice to have a new reader, maybe I can rope some more in with this second chapter!_

**_Thanks Miroku,_**_ You never know wink I'm a big fan of having interaction amongst fiction, like they're all one big web. So I may just…_

**On the Wings of Council **

I glanced at my watch, 8:13, and six minutes since I last checked. I started to pace again. Back and forth, back and forth. I looked at my watch again. 8:16. I growled in frustration. This was stupid! New Bark Town was the same sleepy little town I had left behind, only larger. I was openly amazed at the fact it had an airport. Well you couldn't call it an airport, more of an asphalt road with a box beside it where you could purchase tickets. It was after all the official beginning destination for all trainers of the Johto League.

I arrived in New Bark Town late yesterday evening dog-tired. I waited inside the box for someone to escort me to a tiny little apartment with a bed and a bedside table. Come to think of it, it wasn't much bigger than the airport itself. So I stood slack jawed and slumped shoulders and the brisk business man asked if I was Topaz Soarhire, all I replied was, "Huh?"

After a quick meal I flung myself into the bed, but I'm sure with a mattress that hard I would have been just as comfortable on the floor.

Funnily enough I woke up at 7:30. This time I scurried about the little room, chewing a muesli bar with one hand and scouring my trainers guide with the other, reciting noisily bits I thought would help when the time to choose actually came. I wasn't supposed to meet outside Professor Elm's laboratory until 9:00 but as 7:45 rolled round I couldn't take it any more and wandered over to the lab.

That's another thing I hate about this place, it's weird arse weather. That night I had tossed and turned with the covers shoved off in the itchy heat. Not hot enough to say it's hot, or risk being called a wuss, but enough to make it uncomfortable. Then when this morning rolled around I walked briskly, okay awkwardly, down what was laughably named the main road rubbing my arms in the chill. I think for one brief moment I saw my breath in a smoky cloud. I hate the cold.

Anyhow I arrived muttering and moaning to myself at a big white building at the top of a sandy yellow road on a cresting hill. Behind it lay acre after acre of ecosystems and my eyes widened in disbelief, their little icy glaze cracking, All the different Pokemon! They varied in such shape and size and colour I thought they were a dream.

Suddenly a door slam roused me from my thoughts to see a lanky blond boy getting out of the taxi. I stared at him curiously as he tripped over his baggage and hauled it up the path. He was a rival trainer and I didn't know if I should be nice to him. Well my personality solved that one pretty quickly which proves why I was never good at making friends and reminded me I wasn't particularly nice to anyone.

That was another thing for me to think about, should I remain by myself or choose a companion for my journey. I guess I'd burn cross that bridge when I'd come to it, or whatever the saying was.

"Hi, I'm Matthew," he said holding out his hand.

I hesitated suspiciously. What did he think he doing? Probably softening me up, well I wouldn't fall for his little plan! "Topaz," I replied with a knuckle-crunching handshake. His eyes bulged but his ridiculous smile remained plastered on his face.

"Where are you from, Topaz?"

"Kyeema Town, Metone."

"Never heard of it. Is that's weird accent?" he grinned, trying to encourage me to go on.

Weird? Weird! I'd happily show him weird, turn him into a sideshow-freak!

But I kept my same bland expression and after a while he saw I wasn't interested and turned his attention on two rowdy teenagers coming up the hill. One was a boy with neatly brushed dark blonde hair and a self confident stride the other was a girl who sniggered at him, jabbing his ribs with her forefinger her own shoulder length blonde hair flying in all directions.

_How annoying,_ I reflected.

I watched with amusement as over the next hour another seven kids appeared, each lugging travel bags and backpacks filled to the brim, bright eyed with hope and wonder at what was happening to them. As the time grew closer and closer the tenth and last kid failed to show.

"There's one in every group," I mumbled rolling my eyes, thinking of how the famed Ash Ketchum had done the same thing. I shuddered to think about how humiliating would it be if they ended up following the same path to glory as he.

My obsession with my watch grew stronger as it neared 9:00. When I glanced at my watch after a long stint, between which I rubbed my hands and arms in an attempt to adapt to the freakish climate, I saw it was 8:56.

"Yes!" I cried, causing the others to stare at me. "Four more minutes," I said clumsily, shrugging my shoulders and flushing a bright red.

"Not quite," a voice said behind me. I spun almost tripping on my shoes to face a warm wrinkled face, a leading researching in Pokemon evolution, training and behaviour. A great man I had spent at least the last three years learning about in my Pokemon classes. The almighty Professor Oak!

"Please come in," he smiled, ushering the kids inside. I impatiently started forward but like a river the other kids surged past, butting me to one side. I growled into my chest and tailed them but even as I did two meaty hands shoved me roughly away again. With my legs already twisted it was all it took for me to tumble over the side of the cement stairs onto my arse and when I rolled over and looked up, it was the tenth kid. Tall and muscled with long red hair framing his face. He sneered at me with his squinty green eyes narrowed; something had obviously put him out of temper.

"Me first."

My jaw dropped and without a thought for him my leg shot out and hooked his shin. His limbs windmilled as he hit the floor with a thwack.

"8.6 on the Richter scale!" I bugled and heard the cackles from within.

He stumbled to his feet and snatched me my shirt pulling me onto my feet. My face pinched anxiously as he pulled me nose to nose. "Um...hi?"

"Why you little..." he started.

"Ahh, Tobias. I see you made it," Professor Oak said from the doorway, as if he hadn't expected any better. "Your Aunt is waiting for you inside."

Aunt? The kid, startled by the cold greeting stalked angrily inside to be met by Professor Ivy of the Orange Island League. She spoke briskly with her hands on he hips. She was not impressed. Of course, Professor Ivy was his aunt, it was kind of obvious, I mean the kid hardly looked like he couldn't even tie his shoes let alone write an essay. I wondered resentfully if he was even literate.

"It escapes me how such a brilliant mind could be related to such a buffoon," Professor Oak muttered to me. I nodded in agreement, brushing my self down. "You had better come inside uh-"

"Topaz," I provided.

"Topaz." He smiled brightly, recognising my name from the winners lift. I beamed with delight. He was so cool! "It's almost time to announce the winners, and you won't want to miss that."

As I scampered at his heels through the door, my eyes locked on my prize. At the back of the room the other winners reached into clear compartments, five on one side and five others at their backs, in each was a Pokemon cooing and calling with glee at the many hands holding and rubbing and tickling. Without waiting I surged forward to find the Pokemon destined to stand by my side through thick and thin.

On each case was a status board telling about the Pokemon's Pokedex, temperament, and status. I made my way over to a glass case. Inside was Mareep, a Pokemon with static bristling though its fluff with excitement. I glowed happily as I scooped him up, rubbing my hand over his curl.

"Mareep, the static Pokemon.

Type: Electric Height: 2,0 Weight: 17lbs.

Temperament: These Pokemon is known to be loyal companions

Status: Male Level: 5 Attacks: Tackle Growl Thundershock"

Interesting, loyalty was what I would need from my Pokemon on my journey. He wriggled in my hands, latching his paws over my hands and bleating. I would have happily continued to cuddle him but a bump on my left indicated the line was moving. I passed him on to a tall willowy girl.

I peered into the next compartment. It was empty! After a closer examination of the area I saw the tiny Pokemon hiding behind a large stone. She was a cute little thing, the tips of her ears were a blackish brown giving contrast to the rest of her pink body and the pink curl which reminded me of her evolution, Clefairy.

"Cleffa, the fairy Pokemon.

Type: Normal Height: 11 inches Weight: 6lbs.

Temperament: Very shy, takes a while to trust its trainer

Status: Female Level: 5 Attacks: Sing Charm Pound"

I hardened myself, as cute as she was a timid Pokemon wasn't good in battle so she wasn't the one for me.

Behind her was Igglybuff, the devolution of Jigglypuff. His elastic-like skin felt smooth against me. He bounced up and down in excitement as I picked it up and but he struggled to escape from my arms towards a girl up ahead. He had already formed a bond with her so I put him back, hoping that she would choose him.

After placing him back in his case I moved forward again. This time the Pokemon was Pichu, devolution of Pikachu. He looked quite a bit like his older sibling only his ears were considerably larger. I scratched him behind the ear. Zap! A jolt of electricity coursed through my body making my hair stand on end and leaving me like a crisp chip. I wheezed as the Pokemon giggled at my frazzled appearance. I glared, I didn't need that on my every time I touched him, and progressed to the next one.

The Charmander in the next glass case paced and waved its flamed tail about. I guess it was as impatient as I was. When it saw me it breathed a puff of smoke and turned its back. I made a disappointed sigh. I really wanted a Charmander, but dad's advice lingered in my head. 'Don't to pick the Pokemon, let it pick you'.

I smiled coaxingly but he swang his tail and thumped the glass leaving a black smudge.

A Totodile! In the next case the blithe reptile pressed against the glass, rubbing his head and pawing at it.

"Totodile," he squawked in a voice very much like Donald Duck's. This was the Pokemon I wanted to take with me.

"Totodile, the Bigjaw Pokemon.

Type: Water Height: 2,0 Weight: 21lbs.

Temperament: Friendly, good for beginning trainer

Status: Male Level: 5 Attacks: Scratch Leer Rage,"

It squawked again, raised himself over the glass and leapt into my arms. The sweet little thing made himself comfortable. "I'll make you mine," I clucked, scratching his pebbly blue skin.

I reluctantly handed him over to the girl behind me and was little jealous when the Totodile was playing with her thick crop of lime green hair much the same way as he played with mine. The next Pokemon was a Bulbasaur, I didn't know much about him as he came from the Kanto region. It resembled a bluish dinosaur with a dark green plant bulb on its back with fierce red eyes. The night before I had decided firmly I didn't want a grass type.

"Bulbasaur, the Seed Pokemon.

Type: grass Height: 2,0 Weight: 23lbs.

Temperament: Stubborn.

Status: Male Level: 5 Attacks: Tackle Growl Vinewhip,"

His counterpart was right in front of him, a Chikorita. She waved her leaf-plumed head to grab my attention. She didn't seem like a bad choice, if fact I heard this grass type was very dependable. My resolve not to choose a grass type swayed and I kept her in mind.

The Squirtle lay tucked in her shell asleep, oblivious to the activity around it. Frowning, I tapped its shell. It shuddered on the inside but not turtle Pokemon was forthcoming.

Suddenly a hiss sounded from the glass case beside me and I finally noticed Tobias. He was poking what could only be a Cyndaquil, with its yellow breast blue back and flaming quills, with his short stubby finger. The Cyndaquil was backed up against the glass her back towards him streaming fire, coating the glass with dark smoke. When she couldn't hold the flame any longer, it vanished. She panted, rocking from side to side with a raspy growl. Intimidation wouldn't work on this predator.

"I like a Pokemon with spirit, you're mine you little rat." Tobias stabbed her one last time in the stomach.

"Get out of it you retard!" I barked, shoving him hard with both hands. He swayed a little but looked at me the way a buffalo looks at nitpicking bird. "You heard me! Leave it alone or I'll kick your shins so hard you'll have to walk backwards to go forwards!"

"I didn't hurt it," he grunted with a look like a wounded animal, stalking away.

_You'll get yours pig, I'll make sure of that_ I fumed to myself. People back home were always saying how strange it was that someone so small and slight could have the temper of a Charizard but I always told them it was every short person's instinct to assert their dominance. Short Person Syndrome, or SPS. It basically meant we all think we can take a bloke down, even if they can sit on us and use us as a frisbee.

I turned my attention back to the Cyndaquil. She was cowering in the far corner, shaking with a slick sweat. Warily I lifted her out of the glass and held her tight, petting her till she had calmed down. She didn't struggle, simply rested regaining her breath. She tilted her face up with her squinting eyes. It was then I was sure I wanted her. One of the other kid's tried to get a hold of her, but I gave her a long, steady, possessive stare.

"People," Professor Ivy's voice rang out. "Its time to announce the winners!"

We quickly put the Pokemon back and scrambled for a good view on a couple of wooden benches at the back of the room. Out front our panel of scientists watched us with probing eyes, trying to read our thoughts, interpret how we would conquer the world outside. I'm positive they were, and probably still are, taking bets which of us would last the longest.

When everyone was seated Professor Elm stood up from his chair, peering across the room almost laughingly.

"I know you kids don't want to be bored by a long speech but I'd like to congratulate you on your amazing essays. I think each one touched a special place in our hearts," he said indicating to the other two Professors. They nodded with sincerity but I didn't believe them for a second. I mean, mine won!

"Its now time for the moment you've been waiting for. When I call your name, please select a Pokemon, come to Professor Oak for your Pokeballs and select your corresponding backpack."

For the first time I noticed the various colour packs lined along the wall with black piping for each. It was amazing that with all the items inside that it wasn't bulging, it actually seemed like I could fit the rest of my crap in there. As good as Mary Poppin's magic carpetbag! A good thing too because once I was done with it I wouldn't have even fitted a matchstick inside one of the many pockets.

"First prize," Ivy announced with a smile of pride, "goes to Adam Purves!"

The boy I saw arguing with the girl that morning stood up, a sidelong smug look at the girl who just so happened to sit beside me.

"Another achievement for Mr. Perfect," she snickered to me. I gave her a blank look. "We both come from Vermillion City, he always wins everything and all the teachers love him."

I grinned at this, knowing the type all too well; rolling my eyes. I knew the type so I guess it was true, you just couldn't escape the school hierarchy. The girl didn't seem half bad.

We both turned our attention to Adam who was walking confidently towards the Grass section.

"I hope he doesn't take Chikorita," the girl said, looking worried. She didn't have to because Adam passed by Chikorita to stand by Bulbasaur and claimed in a strong voice, "I choose Bulbasaur."

I caught a couple of disappointed faces as Professor Oak handed him a shiny emerald green Pokeball and picked up the matching backpack. He and Bulbasaur returned to their seat with the vines tangling around his legs in adulation.

"Second Prize is awarded to Charlotte Erben!" The Asian looking girl with a crop of bright green hair and a long rattail braid strode forward to choose...Totodile. I mumbled inaudibly at the downer.

_Oh well,_ I thought but it was obviously a case of sour grapes. I already have a Pokemon if Cyndaquil isn't chosen. Charlotte, satisfied with her choice, took the luminous lapis blue Pokeball and bag.

"Third Prize was won by Ashlee Middleton!" The blond girl darted ahead and lifted Chikorita out of its case as if afraid at the last moment someone would step in and take it.

"I pick Chikorita!" she grinned from ear to ear, brandishing the little grass type in the air with both arms above her head.

"_Chika_!" she squealed, so delighted with her new trainer she waved her plumed head vigorously from side to side. Ashlee returned beside me with her Pokemon, a glossy lime green Pokeball and pack.

"Congratulations on your new Pokemon, Ashlee," I said inspecting Chikorita again. She pulled out of my reach and leaned against Ashlee's leg.

"Yeah," Adam laughed, now beside her. "Now we have something new to compete over."

I looked up to see a boy by the name of Ryan Reathmuller choose Charmander which welcomed him with open arms. He was passed an orange Pokeball as bright as the others.

"Winner of Fifth Prize, is Topaz Soarhire!" I got up steadily feeling my heart thump like a jackhammer in my chest, and walked to the Cyndaquil, barely containing my excitement as I approached. This was it! Everything we had ever talked about! My first step on the road to greatness, a best friend who would stand with me and fight with me!

She whined, hissing as she still cowered in the corner.

"Shhh," I cooed picking her up softly caressed her head. "I'll look after you!"

"Hey you little dog! That's my Pokemon!" I leapt a mile high. It was Tobias. He jumped up from where he was sitting and crossed the distance in heavy stomps. His arms shoved roughly between us, snatching her by the nape of her neck and pushing my shoulder back. Cyndaquil squealed, latching her tiny paws onto my shirt as he tried to tug her off.

A thick tongue of flame erupted with harsh crackles to lick his unprotected face! He staggered back spluttering. The blaze narrowly missed him but he angrily rubbed his sooty face and smoothing the stray strands of his long red hair.

"Bonza!" I crowed, stabbing a triumphant finger between his eyes. "Wanna try again, and I'll finish the job!"

"Quil!" Cyndaquil chirped, backing me up with a menacing flash of flames from her back. I kept that grin plastered across my face but I desperately wanted to shake my hand madly and dull the hot throbbing.

"You'll be the one who's sorry, dog," he hissed scrambling to the left to try from another angle. My eyes traced his movements mockingly, one fist clenched and egging him on.

"GO BACK TO YOUR SEAT NOW OR WE'LL DISQUALIFY YOU FOR THIS APPALLING BEHAVIOR," Professor Elm roared, sending papers scattering over the ground. Aids from all sides rushed in, sweeping them up and setting them timidly back on the table. Professor Ivy mumbled, blushing furiously covering her eyes as she stared at her notes. Professor Oak looked oblivious, picking at some tofu. He looked up with a full mouth, chewing slow and cow like.

With one last, venomous glare, Tobias sat back down to wait for his turn. Things weren't done yet, he certainly wasn't the kind of kid to be outsmarted by a midget girl but that didn't bother me. I bounced Cyndaquil in my arms as I collected my metallic crimson Pokeball and backpack and sat back down.

"You were incredible, Cyndaquil," I murmured to her.

Ashlee poked me and pointed to where Tobias sat glowering. "I think you've made yourself an enemy Topaz. Tobias has it in for you."

"He can take a ticket. Besides Cyndaquil will be there, eh Cyndaquil?"

Cyndaquil looked at me puzzled, still quivering slightly. "Quii-ill?"

Was it just me, or was that a _you're on your own _look?

"Sixth goes to Matthew Gammel," Professor Ivy announced, a blush in her cheek.

Matthew was a little unsure of himself. He paced between the sleeping Squirtle and the sparking Pichu. Finally he reached over the glass to select the rodent. He was most likely thinking of the current champion of the Elite Four, Ash Ketchum, who had started with Pikachu. As he touched Pichu, his eyes widened. He'd been shocked too. A polished yellow Pokeball and pack was now his. Every now and again I'd his eyes would bulge and a spark of lightning would rip through his blond hair as he twitched and jerk back to his seat.

"Seventh prize is presented to Tiffany Hill!" She stepped towards the case that held Cleffa. But the timid little Pokemon wouldn't leave her crevice behind the rock.

"Try this," Professor Elm said handing her a piece of apple. Tiffany tried again and this time the she happily seized the apple. Tiffany carefully lifted her clear of the case and received her pinkish Pokeball.

"Eighth is Sky Erbacker." Now there were only three Pokemon left, Mareep, Igglybuff and Squirtle. Sky chose Mareep the sheep with little hesitation, although I was sure he had had is eye on a different Pokemon at the beginning. After accepting a Gold Pokeball and pack, the two returned to their seat, the little fluff ball bleating happily and tail wagging.

Kylie Zwiske won Ninth, a short podgy girl with brown hair and didn't even have to walk the entire length of the room to reach her Pokemon. Igglybuff bounced out of the glass, but Igglybuff's skin was extra rubbery so when it hit the floor it ricocheted off and bounced on all directions.

"Bulbasaur, grab Igglybuff with your Vinewhip!"

"Iggly!" Fwoof! Off the wall to my right as the vines tried to lasso around it!

"You to, Chikorita!"

"Iggly!" Bonk! It bounced off the ceiling and off the floor!

"Totodile, when I throw you up grab him!"

"Get him, Charmander."

Voices and vinewhips were everywhere. Igglybuff recoiled off anything and everything with people tripping forward or falling back. Cyndaquil and I huddled in the corner and every now and again I'd feel the burn of her panicking backflame. When order was restored, Igglybuff and a strawberry pink Pokeball were handed to her.

"Last but not least Tobias Ivy." Tobias stomped forward and grabbed the shell still snoring Squirtle, swinging it without concern for the Pokemon within. Squirtle awoke and not liking his trainer's rough handling he blasted him with a torrent of icy water.

"You little snot!" Tobias snarled prepared to hurl him at a near by wall.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" Professor Ivy yelled shooting to her feet as she shook an accusing finger at her nephew. "I've had enough humiliation for one day and if you don't treat your Pokemon properly you won't get one!"

Intimidated by his aunt, he stayed his temper and recalled Squirtle into his turquoise Pokeball.

"Now that you have you Pokemon," Professor Oak said somewhat sleepily, breaking the awkward silence. "You may go. You have been registered in the Johto League and have our numbers programmed into your cell phones if ever you need us. It's a big wide world out there, full of obstacles to brave and startling realisations. Follow your heart."

Quick as lightning kids clamoured for the door with triumphant cries, and I was being pushed through like a raging river in flood. While still clutching Cyndaquil protectively I scurried out of the way of the stampede and onto the podium to stand beside Adam and Ashlee who had the same idea. Each of us had a childish gawp on our faces as the area was left in a shamble by the passing feet, leaving only a lonesome tumbleweed to trail through the door after them.

We each raised a sceptical eyebrow following its rickety bounces.

I knelt down, setting Cyndaquil beside me and began to repack my things. Just as I had expected the bag swallowed everything with ease and still sagged a little at the edges. I looked at it approvingly. It was a WonderBag!

As the last item was sorted a phone's high-pitched trill rang through the lab, aids scattering left and right to look for the source. They were sure a nervous bunch, probably too much caffeine but after a few moments one returned, his glasses askew with a receiver in hand for Professor Elm. Refitting his own glasses on the nib of his nose he answered with a laugh. "Hell-oh! Oh is that so Mr Pokemon! You don't say! You don't say? Is that so? You don't say! Uh huh, uh huh. You don't say! I'll send someone right over."

As he hung up Professor Ivy, leaning against her desk in thought rolled her eyes, she asked, "What did he say he found this time?" She rolled her eyes, continuing to pick at her nails. I don't know, with her droopy eyes she always seemed just a tiny bit stoned to me.

"He didn't say," he said attempting the lame joke to which she rolled her eyes again in disgust. Childishly he stuck his tongue out at her and turned to we remaining trainers.

"Would you be able to do me a favour?"

"Of course!" Adam volunteered, an enthusiastic arm shooting into the air. I made a squawk of indignation, I never agreed to that! Things to do, people to see, Pokemon to catch!

Professor Elm eyed me with faint disapproval but carried on regardless. "That was Mr Pokemon. He lives north of Cherrygrove City and has made an interesting discovery and I'm too busy. If you could please go and bring it back I would be very grateful."

"Of course we will!" Adam assured, appearing cool and layback. "We'll start right now."

He followed Elm to grab the directions while I shot questioning glances at Ashlee. Ashlee shrugged and rolled her eyes, mouthing the word, suckup. We sniggered.

"Hmm," I mumbled squatting and hauling it onto my shoulders. Whatever my bag looked like it was still bloody heavy and I staggered a few steps around the room before balancing and shifting it so it fit comfortably into the curves of my back. Swallowing hard, I righted myself, looking pretty ridiculous with my legs bowed and a goofy grin. Whatever was going to slow us down, it didn't matter, I was on my way to fame and glory!

"Okay lets get goin' Cyndaquil," I grunted. I spared her a critical glance. "You're not going to get far on those paddle feet, climb aboard."

Cyndaquil snorted insulted, lifting her feet for her own inspection but fell flat on her back. I laughed musically, bending down for her to scramble up. She perched satisfied on the seat of the bag with her paws hooked into my top and with "_Cyyyyndaquil_!" she thrust it out towards the door.

"Yeah, yeah! Who's the trainer round here! You's two coming?"

"Yep!" they chorused, petting their own Pokemon and slanting to one side with the weight of their pack. This was so cool! I was doing it! Me, Topaz Soarhire, a scrawny country kid of average grades and had been looking at an average future probably at a desk job. My dream had been to become a Pokemon Ranger, but this was ten times better!

The exultation was so strong, I couldn't help but whistle as I teetered around the room to get out the door!

"Whow-ow!" I whined, tugging off my sneaker and examining the blisters that had formed on my heel. I was tired, dirty, hungry and dishevelled, but I felt a certain enchantment at the long day of walking. It was obvious that the other trainers had been before us, the wild Pokemon had learnt their lesson and fled until the coast was clear. No matter how hard we looked not a Pidgey was to be found. I guess it was a good thing we didn't find anything because there would have been such a row over it it would have escaped anyway.

The thought stopped me as I unfurled my sleeping bag on the floor of the Cherrygrove PokeCentre, trapping Cyndaquil beneath. She sneezed, poking her head from beneath it and snuggling on top with purring sound.

"Hey guys."

"Yeah, Tez?" Ashlee answered from in front of a mirror of our cosy little room, and when I say cosy I mean cramped. She brushed out her blond hair from the tangles and prickles we had picked during the day. Adam had misjudged the track and consequently we rolled to the dusty bottom with cuts and scratches to boot. I was not pleased and I let him know, just short of my fist.

"I don't reckon we should travel together, it'll get to competitive among us if wild Pokemon stay this scarce. I'll be knocking off on my own tomorrow."

"Knock yourself out," Adam answered vacantly, rubbing his hand on the smooth surface of the egg we had retrieved. It was white with pale blue and pink geometric squiggles over it. Nothing spectacular so I wondered what had the short, stocky Mr Pokemon so excited.

Ashlee looked anxious. "You're going to leave me with him? How will I be able to survive his know-it-all-ness!" she wailed mockingly, flopping backwards with her hand on her heart and moaning. With a gleeful cry her Chikorita leapt onto her stomach and her trainer blanched at the impact.

I smiled dryly. Within a few hours I had dubbed Ashlee the Queen of Corny. There wasn't one joke she told that didn't make me groan. "You'll survive."

"Hey!" Adam retorted. "You didn't listen to anything I said?"

"Of course not," I said soothingly. "You see Adam, most kids your age would be obliged to stop talking when the people they're talking to begin to show signs of exhaustion, coma or rigger-mortuus. Not you."

"Yeah, well at least I don't threaten everyone with a fist when I can't even see over their elbow!"

"Shutup."

Sunlight.

I hate sunlight.

With a groan I rolled over in bed, reaching clumsily to pull my blinds closed and shut the penetrating beams out. I groped, leaning further and further across without meeting it.

"Huwhoa!"

THUD!

"_Cyndaaaaa_!"

Fwooooof!

I landed sprawled on the cold lacquered floor with all my blankets pulled with me. The harsh squeal came as I rolled over and bright yellow flames flared up kindling my tangled sheets around my waist.

"HOTHOTHOT!" I wailed leaping up wide-awake, struggling to free myself of my sleeping bag bunched around my ankles and furiously clapping my hands on my hair. Racing around the room in panic and with sudden clarity I stuffed my head into the mountain of my blankets, smothering them out.

I flopped to the floor panting, glaring at the Pokemon grinning in amusement; even her squinting eyes seemed to be laughing at me. With a groan I rubbed my eyes, looking around groggily. Of course this wasn't my bedroom, it was the bloody freezing room at the Cherrygrove PokeCentre I had stayed in last night. I rubbed my arms shivering a little as I scanned the room. Packs were gone and most was tidied up. How did I sleep through that?

"What do we do now, Cyndaquil? And what do they have in the way of food around here?" I ventured, standing up ready to get dressed. I gave her a stern look and she gave an exasperated _Quil_! before turning around obligingly. I pulled on my nifty new uniform and when I still looked like a trainer I smirked arrogantly. If anyone was going to get anywhere on this journey it had to be me!

After squandering a good half hour at the PokeCentre's complimentary buffet table for registered trainers, we wobbled out, bloated and satisfied. Oh I love a hot meal, but that meant that going out into the world would be all that much difficult. I had inherited my fathers cooking abilities, which is to say zilch.

Peering up and down the street I wondered which way to go. It was larger than New Bark town, but then again so was my room at home. Wriggling my shoulders to fix my uncomfortable pack I observed a green tiled roof rising above the others and figuring that there had to be a reason for making it so noticeable.

"You know, what about the Pokemart, its not like I need to stock up but you never know what we don't have but might need," I suggested to her on the back of my pack again. She shrugged, gazing in wonder at the houses and the buildings. I kept forgetting how young she was in Pokemon years, she couldn't be more than level 6 at most, considering how little battling we could do yesterday.

"Come on, mate," I called to Cyndaquil who was snuffling around a quaint streetlamp curiously.

It was big, but then again I was a country hick, and what did I know. It took no less than thirty seconds for me to wander around and realise I didn't know which way I had come, but that didn't really matter. On every side were gidgets and gagets and thing-a-ma-bobs galore. I prodded a bizarre item that looked like a calculator, except for the antennae and feet and it took off on a musical jig, bobbing up and down while it sang in a computerised voice. I quickly tried to find the off button but only continued louder and louder.

Needless to say I put it down and shuffled away, whistling innocently.

I coasted along the aisles aimlessly, looking at nothing in particular, until some bold black lettering caught my eye.

"Translator," I mused to Cyndaquil turning it over in my hands, examining the tiny black box no bigger then my thumbnail. This could make things a hell of a lot easier than second guessing what my Pokemon were saying. I excitedly waved a shop assistant over wondering how something so bland could work.

"Hi!" interrupted the copper haired girl, thrusting her hand into mine without hesitating and ripping my arm from my socket. "I'm Shop Attendant Jheta! My relatives and I are experts in Pokemon care and if there's anything you ever need, don't hesitate to ask!"

"Yeah, thanks," I drawled withdrawing my hand and patting Cyndaquil on my shoulder. "Do these really translate Pokemon speech?"

"Absolutely positively! They're the latest technology once only available to the rich and famous with the ability to convert anything your Pokemon says for you to understand is now yours to own!" She bugled like carnie in Sideshow Alley at a carnival. She caught sight of Cyndaquil, eagerly lifting her from her perch and ignoring her warning growl. She disappeared down another aisle for a second and returned with a dog collar, slipping it around my Pokemon's neck. "Would you like to test it?"

Annoyed at her presumptuous attitude I gave a surly, "Yes please."

Jheta beamed, palming the black box from my hand like a magician and snapping it onto the collar, giving an encouraging nod.

"Hi Cyndaquil!"

_"Don't be stupid! There has to be something more intelligent in the human vocabulary than, '_Hiiiii-iiii."

"Hey!" I snapped back angrily, recovering from my astounded gawking. "Have you been making snide comments like that the whole way?"

_"Maay-be_," she purred slyly. The translator made her sound exactly like her soft Pokemon voice. I laughed, thinking how cool it would be to have conversations along the way. She stuck her round paw through the collar and looked at it disdainfully with a meaningful look. I shrugged turning to the shop attendant and asked if there were any collars more fashionable.

"Of course! Follow me and you'll find a range of stylish collars to fit the personality of even the wildest Pokemon!"

"Whatever."

We toddled after Jheta who lead us to a brightly coloured rack and she motioned for us to find browse through. We perused over them, picking some up and holding them against Cyndaquil's fur with mock voices.

"What about this one daaaahling!" I crooned, holding one up with a gross pink floral design. She gave a disgusted _Ug_! batting it away and tossing it into the growing pile in the corner. After a minute or two more, Cyndaquil poked her head up from beneath a pile of them, with one hanging over her nose.

_"This one!"_ she said resolutely. I held it up to the light, watching the sun glitter on the sparkling red and yellow flames. I turned it over and checked the price tag. Yeesh! All that for a strip of leather? I sighed dolefully but reached into my pocket and plucked out a twenty dollar note, along with another thirty for the actual translator. What a rip, but when I affixed it and she posed hither and thither in from of a mirror I smiled wanly, it was worth it I guess, I just hoped the rest of my Pokemon were more modest.

"Looks pretty snazzy, Cyndaquil," I complimented, wondering if any of my other Pokemon would be so pricey. She nodded smugly turning her neck again to reflect the sun.

_"That's another thing Topaz,"_ she said, not turning away from her reflection. _"Could you not call me 'Cyndaquil, it'd be like me calling you 'Human."_

"Yeah, no worries, what do you have in mind?"

She uttered a bark like laugh, _"You couldn't pronounce it if you tried, so I guess it's up to you."_

I paused thoughtfully; head cocked trying to find something that would suit her. "Flame?"

_"Pfft! Why not just call me Fido and be done with it,"_ she scoffed.

"Hey," I retorted defensively, I was never good at naming my pets. "Ok, Blaze."

"_Zzzzzzit, wrong!"_ she droned like a game show buzzer.

"How about Fury?"

"_Fury_," she murmured reflectively. _"Its better than Blaze I guess."_

"Glad you like it. Now how about we catch a few Pokemon, Fury?" I suggested.

Fury's face lit up like a candle. _"My first battle, let's go!"_

Thirty minutes later I had finally navigated my way out of the town into a quiet patch of long swaying panic grass, scouring it and trying to flush out something with loud noises and hulking steps. I wiped the sweat of my brow with my sleeve, leaning against a tree watching the road. This was harder than they made it look on TV, they just jumped out at you there. As I rested, watching the long green blades part for the invisible Fury as she scurried around ardently for an opponent.

My attention lagged further when suddenly meters away to my left, the grass stirred with an alarmed squeak.

"Fury!" I yammered excitedly, my thoughts racing for everything I'd learnt in the pre-journey classes. Ok, I thought flustered as Fury appeared from the wall of grass, head whipping left and right. First thing is to get it into view, then choose a tactic to suit the Pokemon type.

"Ember attack Fury, flush it out of the long grass!" A weak flash of her first learned attack and the Pokemon leapt squealing into view, pupils wide with alarm. It looked very much like the one in I'd seen in my textbooks, as there were no Sentret in the Metone region but I had memorised its information anyway. Better safe than sorry, I directed the Pokedex sensor at it in case it had been updated since those textbooks were written.

"Sentret, the Scout Pokemon. Very cautious, it raises itself up by using its tail to get a better view of its surroundings."

'Fury! Ready for you first battle!" Fury gave a long triumphant _ Quuuuuuiiilll_, her paw bunched into a threatening fist at the muddled Pokemon, trying unsuccessfully to scurry up a tree trunk.

"_Hahahah_," she scoffed. _"Its going to be way to easy too hit this thing. He's even got a built in target!"_

But while Fury laughed, Sentret lost his wild and frightened expression and aimed his attack too late for Fury to dodge. He surged forward and struck her again and again with his paws, puncturing each contact with a "Tret-tret-tret!" A fury swipes attack!

"Fight back with ember!" I ordered. Fury wheeled around with her back facing the panting Sentret, who lined up his paws again. Unprepared, the spluttering flames caught Sentret and wrapped around him like a blanket. When they vanished, it left the soot coated Sentret right and ready for me to capture.

"Pokeball go!" I hurled it with everything I could muster and it struck him a glancing blow. It was enough and Sentret was absorbed into the ball as a red light. It rocked, once, twice, three times and went still. I waited eagerly and at last it gave a glorious PING! I caught my first Pokemon!

"Yes! You little beauty!" I whooped racing forward and snatching Fury up by her tummy and tossing her into the air. "We captured our first Pokemon!" I cried as I caught her.

_"Please, I get air sick!" _the Cyndaquil groaned as I threw her higher, somersaulting before landing in my cradled arms again.

"Think about it Fury, that was the first step on the way to becoming a true blue legend! You and me all the way, ay?" I put her down, squatting and showing her Sentret's Pokeball proudly. After returning to town to have him healed, I fitted him with his own translation device and a moderately stylish new collar- okay, I'm cheap. He scrapped at it happily with all four feet rocking on his back as he watched it glitter in the sun. I wanted to get in a little more training before lunchtime so I encouraged him to help search. It was only a matter of minutes with his keen Sentret vision and strong tail before another was spotted.

"_Topaz_!" Target called in his shrill voice lost amongst the bushes. When I arrived puffing, I was _sooo_ out of shape, Sentret was already dodging and dancing and trading blows with another Pokemon.

"A Pidgey!" I exclaimed as I recognized the brown bird. It was perfect for the beginning trainer because of its calm nature, my head recited from the guidebook, and it would evolve into a Pidgeot I had only admired from afar before. Also a flying type would be the ideal type to add to my newly formed team.

"Pidgey, the tiny bird Pokemon. It would rather defend itself than attack. Kicks up blinding dust to escape."

"Not this Pidgey! Target, quick attack." With a running jump Target slammed Pidgey with tremendous speed that I only saw it as an eclipse of movement. Pidgey countered with its quick attack and they both collided with such force they both fainted. A few seconds and a Pokeball later, I had my third Pokemon.

_"We're hot today!"_ Fury twittered from my pack as we returned to the PokeCentre for the second time that day. I rolled both full Pokeballs in my hand. Fury was also coming along well too, challenging a few Pokemon I didn't intend on capturing, only for experience.

"I reckon we're ready to go to the next town. As soon as Talon's healed we'll start on Route 30," I ventured gazing dreamily at the gift of a day around me. Life was good.

"Hey!" I stared, halting in my tracks. It stared back. From a far off tree perched a lone sentry, a Pidgeot. Even from the distance I could feel its intense eyes on me. Oh it was beautiful, just as beautiful as the ones back home. With my breath caught in my throat, I desperately wanted to try my hand at its capture, but as if sensing my thoughts, it launched into the air, pumping its powerful wings for altitude before catching a thermal and soaring out of sight behind the trees.

"Ohhwhoa!" I moaned staring after it. What was a wild Pidgeot doing out here? It was probably some master trainer hanging around to pick off the newbies, I thought miserably.

_"Whatcha whining about? You can evolve Talon can't you?"_ Fury tried to comfort me on my shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess," I said reluctantly, trudging towards the PokeCentre. When Talon was healed I felt a little more hopeful. He certainly was hungry for battle. I released him inside the PokeCentre and the first thing he did was challenge a Paras. It ducked timidly behind its protective trainer, an uppity teenage girl who thought a five-minute lecture was in order. I apologised profusely, sweeping each of my three Pokemon into my arms and hurrying outside.

I consulted the map and after some time, I figured which way north was, tried for the north gate and Route 30. About 10 minutes later I turned around and trekked back the other way _positive_ that way was north.

I took barely three steps out onto the dirt track from Cherrygrove when a little midget kid sprang behind me blocking the way back to the PokeCentre. He could only have gotten his license days ago.

"Hey!" he called, tossing his Pokeball cockily from hand to hand. "I just caught my first Pokemon and I'm ready for a battle!"

My hands went to my hips unimpressed, swishing my long blue ponytail of my shoulder with a playful smirk. "Sure, but better be prepared to lose. Go Fury!"

Fury bounded from my shoulder, poised for battle, mimicking my smug posture.

'Go Rattata, tackle attack now!" the little boy ordered, thrusting his finger at her.

Without me asking, Fury exhaled a cloud of smoke, a smokescreen attack, and the Rattata raced by, missing her by inches as a patch of violet darted around. She snarled, ramming the Rattata's side as it passed.

"Now Ember!" A dim flame still learning to be controlled licked out and the Rattata wailed from inside the plume, fainting with a thump

"_Another victory!"_ Fury's outburst had startled the trainer before he realized she was using a translator. He grumbled but handed over our winning stash. We continued on our way, my Pokemon battling three more trainers, fairly even battles although the 2nd one was a straight out loss. I was using up all my potions in a hurry.

As the day ended we set up camp for our first night on our own. It was wonderful watching the sun sink in the western edge of the sky in a haze of pink and orange, knowing you only had yourself to rely on.

Fury set the fire while I cooked a dished out some Pokechow into some plastic bowls, releasing my two new Pokemon, Target and Talon. After I finished shovelling the last mouthful in I turned thoughtful, asking my Pokemon what it was like to live in the wild. As it turned out, both Target and Talon were no more than children that had just ventured to far from their families.

"A trained Pokemon is stronger than a wild one," I explained, trying to reason why they were better off with me, though it felt a little half hearted. Luckily, they took it in stride.

_"If I return one day, I'll be able to beat the rest of my friends easy,"_ crowd Talon, lifting his own with a menacing gleam in his eye. _"I mean, how many wild Pidgeot's are there? I learnt more today then I had in month!"_

I nodded pleased. I think Talon was referring to when he had learnt its whirlwind attack when we battled a pretty tough bug trainer.

_"She's a great trainer. I bet if we stick with her we'll make it to the Elite Four,"_ Fury chipped in, clapping her paws together.

I grinned, falling into silent ponderings, gazing affectionately at the three as they took off for a game of tag amongst the trees around us, darting in and out with gleeful cries. Now was the time to devise a strategy of how I would take on the League. It was proven the 90 of Trainers that set themselves a goal to achieve, like capturing all Pokemon, or being a Gymleader, or even to become Master, no matter how difficult it is to accomplish do far better than those wandering aimlessly. I frowned in deep thought; I didn't know what I wanted to be, only that I wanted to bring out the best in my Pokemon.

_Well, the first thing could be earning at least eight badges to enter the Pokemon League, _I thought slowly, stirring my spoon around my second helping. I looked at it with distaste.

"Yo Talon," I called, "you want more?"

He gave a greedy chirp and burst from the branches to land with hopeful eyes at his dish. As he bent his head to scoop out some of the reddish orange pellets, a voice rang, bouncing of the trees. I shot to my feet with fright, readying my fists. Even Target and Fury stopped what they were doing to peer warily around them.

"_Hoothoot_!" The branches rattled above and a silhouetted Pokemon glided down, landing sluggishly with a hop skip and a jump, the single foot clamping onto Fury's bow and gobbling down her leftovers without pausing for air. I gawked amazed that a wild Pokemon would come so close to an open fire, especially with a so obvious Pokemon trainer around. After she finished with Fury's she made her way to Target's, both Pokemon too stunned to move. Then after a second's deliberation she made a pass at Talon's share, snapping her beak angrily but the Pidgey blocked the way, flaring his own wings in a scare tactic.

_"Don't even think about it you little..."_ But the threat fell flat on Hoothoot. Her eyes flashed brightly and tackled the blind Talon aside, gulping it down frantically. Outraged, Talon lunged for the ravenous Pokemon and bludgeoning her head on. Hoothoot squawked tumbling into a near by tree and hopping around dizzily. She glared cross-eyed at Talon, springing forward to devour his food yet again. The whole thing held me entranced. This time Talon ripped at Hoothoot with his clawed feet until she was fainted on the ground.

Recovering from the surprise, I plucked one of the spare Pokeballs on my hair tie and tapped it on the unconscious Pokemon. It bounced in my hand but remained shut. When it signalled the successful capture, I rolled it in the dying light, the orange glare pooling on us. "I didn't know you had such a temper Talon," I said finally.

_"That was mine!"_ he answered defensively.

"Hey, I understand. That's the way it was around my place, first in best dressed. I wonder why she wouldn't give up?"

I released Hoothoot from her Pokeball and revived her using a potion and set her own share of Pokemon Chow before her. While she shook off the effects I snapped a translator around her neck and asked why she was so hungry.

She looked at me suspiciously, finishing her meal before answering, eyes flicking around the forest. _"Yesterday morning a boy was chasing me, he wouldn't give up. Every time I tried to rest he came at me with his Wartortle. I finally lost them just before and I haven't eaten in two days and now I'm still caught!"_

Wartortle! That meant Tobias was around here somewhere, it made me just as cagey as her!

_"Don't worry Hoothoot. Topaz is a great trainer and you'll never be hungry again,"_ Target squeaked enthusiastically, rubbing his round little tummy. "_But now your part of the team, you need a name too."_

_"What if I don't want a new name?" _she snapped, still no happier.

"Then you don't get one. Hoothoot's fine with me." I reassured. "Anyway its time for bed."

_"What if I don't want a bed time?"_ she demanded sulkily.

"Well too bad."

_"Hang on,"_ Fury snorted. _"What do you mean? You're out on your own, you don't need a bedtime." _

"I do if I have to get up early."

I recalled my Pokemon even the petulant Hoothoot, and slipped into my sleeping bag with Fury. I thought about my first day as a trainer. I'm pretty good and I'm only going to get better I thought to myself. Also tomorrow I could fight my first Gymbadge.

See the illustrated fiction at !


	3. WoC3

Another chapter!

**ObsidianSpires**: I enjoy writing Fury, she's more mature and got more sense than Topaz. A balance between take and.. er take on Topaz's half.  
**Dilasc: **While it may be a bummer, I assure you there completely new chapters, such as the Belsprout temple and completely redone rewritten chapters like the _Union Reunion_. I hope your not too disappointed  
**Tjal: **He does look like a cow. I can never really decide if Professor Oak is as dreamyas he looks  
**Miroku**: Oneof my most determined reviewers! Shhh! Don't spoil! laughs  
**The Made Tortoise:** Oh might goddess of the pokemon other trainer fiction, everything she touches turns to gold! A shrine in the house of Usism! Read her stuff like mad!

**Chapter 3**

My eyes opened blearily, gazing at the blurry world above the sleeping bag's lip and yawned. I love sleep; there is nothing more relaxing in the world than lying in bed buried in doonas on a rainy day. But, I wasn't in my room, and luckily it wasn't raining so with great lack of enthusiasm, I groped from my PokeGear lying next to my bag and checked the time.

"9:56! Fury, why'd you let me sleep in? You knew I wanted to start training early," I frowned, scrambling up and rummaging through my bag. She rolled onto her back, her tiny paws wagging in the air and her nose breathing deeply making little _woosh_ noises as I picked up the pieces of last night. It wasn't much of a celebration, my first night on my own in the big wide world, but we had at least scoffed a good deal of lollies I had bought from the Cherrygrove's corner store. I smiled warmly as her bulging little stomach rose and fell.

_"You looked tired."_

"Most people do when they're sleeping. Damn, we better get going if we want to get to Violet city before dark." We fed and packed up quickly and when Fury was tucked away safely I hurried back towards the track that led towards the first Gymbadge. To cut a rather repetitive part short, lotsa battles, just as many victories. Okay, so what if they were all little kids with Rattata's, a wins a win! And from what the Pokedex said, Fury was on the verge of evolving.

Hoothoot settled into the group very slowly, but still eyed me gruffly when she thought I wasn't looking. I think that was why Talon wasn't getting too close but I was probably just being paranoid, no trainer wants to be hated by their Pokemon.

At the end of the day, the sun began to fade, as it so often did around 6 o'clock, and it didn't look like we were going to make it to Violet before night set in.

I swore but saw a shortcut through a copse of trees, and I could at least get in a few more kilometres before it became totally black. Fury whined but I convinced her not much longer, I mean I was the one doing the walking, and I was pretty knackered too.

I didn't hesitate to cut across the track curving around it but I had second thoughts once I was inside. It was tight knit, the branches weaving in and out of each other cutting out all but a few penetrating rays of light. They wavered eerily if the wind picked up the branches and shook them like maracas.

As we entered the clearing I felt a cold chill. It was too quiet, even the Caterpie churring above us fell into a heavy silence. I rubbed my arms through my trainer's uniform. It wasn't cold but something was definitely amiss. Telling myself I was being stupid and unreasonable

I strode forward reciting _There was an Old Lady _in my head, I really enjoyed repetitive songs you could see how fast you could babble. It was why I liked a lot of Dr Seuss poems no matter how old I got.

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly! I don't know why she swallowed a fly, but I think she'll die.

Fury dozed fitfully as she lay on top of my pack, making odd snuffling noises. It made me even more uneasy but I trekked on regardless. But the further in I went I still couldn't free myself of the feeling I was being watched, one of those sixth sense things that always seem to fade as you grow older.

_There was an old lady who swallowed a spider! It wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed a fly but I think she'll die._

The rhyme in my head trailed off. I should have been thinking about more important things.

_Okay, I have four Pokemon, that's pretty good but will it beat the Violet gym leader, _I mused to distract myself, wondering what type they actually used. It was too bad I hadn't studied up more on the actual League. From what I read, Johto was densely populated in large cities sparsely dotting the region and heavily forested. It had a variety of environments that the Kanto League didn't have which made for a larger variety of Pokemon.

_There was an old lady who swallowed a bird, how absurd to swallow a bird! She swallowed the bird to catch the spider that wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly-_

Suddenly behind me a sharp crack in the stillness went of like a gunshot. I spun wildly to face it with Fury starting wide-awake loosing a shrill cry as she clutched to keep a grip onto the bag.

There, beneath the eves of the trees, the slanted light stretching claw like shadows across his face, was Tobias. His red hair swayed as it framed his face, his whole body perfectly still. He glared at me sullenly, not speaking, not moving. I swallowed hard, tensing my muscles. What the heck was he pulling here?

Fury broke the wary silence between us with a hiss and her back crest erupted with a spurt of sparks. I swatted them out casually, trying to contain my poise.

"Hello Topaz. Isn't it a surprise to see you here." He offered an unrevealing smile before he continued, freaky little snot. "So, how's _my_ Cyndaquil going? It was so nice of you to look after it for a while, but now I've come to take the little rat back."

I flushed angrily, sucking in a tight breath as I glared. "Not in this life time mate! You want her, you'll have to fight me!"

He snorted, rightly so I guess considering he had a good head of height over me and a lot of weight to go with it. But I readied my fists, goading him on with my own cocky smirk. He strode purposely closer within an arms reach and before I could stop myself I swelled up, thrusting my shoulders back and jutted my chin out proving I wasn't backing down to him or anyone else. "Bring it on you stuck up boofhead!"

Suddenly his face snarled and he lashed out like an Arboc, grabbing my shirt and yanking me up to his face. I sucked in a whoosh of air in shock. Fury rolled from my shoulder crying out as she landed in the bushes. Tobias spared her a brief glance but tightened his grip on my shirt. I gagged, his knuckle pressed under my oesophagus spitefully rubbing against it as the tips of my toes sought contact with the ground.

"Give me her Pokeball! She was mine!" he threatened into my ear. He jabbed his knuckle in deeper. My eyes bugged with a gurgle. I shied away with my neck against my back. I felt like a sacrificial lamb! Still I stubbornly remained silent, glaring. It was then I caught the frantic light in his eyes, wild and scared. Did he even know what he was doing? All at once it rolled together, the tough act, his disgusted aunt, the way he kept trying to justify himself.

"Nooo-bod-ee likes you!" I sang softly, gagging as his thumb rubbed up and down my throat as I spoke. "Ever-ee body hates you, why don't you go and eat wuuuurms!"

"No!" Tobias stuttered, a look like a stunned rabbit trapped in headlights. His grip loosened around my throat allowing me to stand properly. With opportunistic timing, I lashed out with my fist, pistoning from my waist and twisting it just under his floating rib. He cried out releasing my shirt and shoving my away as he doubled over gasping

"You want a fight I'll give you a FIGHT!" I yelled madly, my mouth set savagely. I threw myself at him with arms flailing but with a sweep of his arm still clutching his stomach with one hand he heaved me away and leapt forwards. His fist whistled past my nose as I fell backwards and rolling over the ground in an ungainly heap.

"Hoothoot go!" I shouted frantically, fumbling over my Pokeballs. As I was about to release her, Tobias's boot slammed down on my wrist with shrieking agony and the Pokeball rolled from my splayed rictus fingers out of my reach. I reeled clawing at the boot with his other hand trying to pry it off as he twisted it deeper into the leaves.

"A Hoothoot, Topaz? That's now two Pokemon you've stolen from me." Tobias grinned menacingly, huffing and hunched, he swept the thick red bangs that hung limply by his face and curled it back into its place. "That means twice the beating!" His boot connected with the back of my head and my vision swam. As I tried to get up he lashed out twice more the steel caps drilling my lower back and ribs. On the third time I rolled _into _his kick, latching around it.

With an angry grunt I sank my teeth in through his pant leg.

"You little!" He roared, grabbing a hunk of hair and yanking me up onto my feet. My scalp screamed and I could feel the dull trickle of blood down the nape of my neck. His face twisted in an angry grimace, teeth bared and lips peeled back, eyes a mad white. It was like a dog that had been beaten around all its life had finally snapped. He threw me to the ground again with another brutal kick.

I gazed up at him cradling my arm to chest, and trying to take the brunt with my knees. "No, I'm not going to kill you Topaz. Just beat you within an inch of your life."

Then from beneath my pack Fury squeaked furiously and leapt at Tobias from behind, loosing a series of slash and bite attacks. Tobias whirled around swinging his elbow and batted her away in surprise. She crashed into the ground in a flurry of dead leaves.

"_Topaz_!" Fury cried weakly to me. I screamed in hot red anger, kicking out at Tobias's shins as he still stood peering at her over his shoulder. He grunted. His legs buckled a little but no more. I shrugged away trying to collect my thoughts.

"Fury!" I scrambled to my feet but while I was off balance, Tobias's fist caught me in the hollow of my throat and I plunged to the ground again. "Fury!" I wheezed, gasping for air. Little by little, I inched my way to where Fury had fallen. Each time I tried to get up, Tobias beat me to the ground again with a hellish, barely conscious grin. After numerous blows, I finally made it to Fury. She lay by the tree, senseless.

"Fury," I whispered and sweeping her into my chest.

"That's my rat!" Tobias screamed, drunken with rage and pummelled me with kick after kick to my back. Tobias was gone, and in his wake was a goulish boy the result of years of contempt from those around him.

_I'll be pissing blood for a week,_ I giggled as the pain began to dim and my thoughts started to swoon. But that didn't matter to me. All that mattered was that my Pokemon were safe. I groaned as Tobias bashed my kidneys again with a high pitched bark.

Suddenly Fury stirred. She saw my face contorted with pain and an amazing thing happened. Fury began to glow with a soft white radiance. The white light blossomed and grew brighter and covered her whole body like a veil of newly fallen snow. The glow became more dazzling until it became unbearable and I had to shut my eyes. In my arms her body shifted and wriggled, changing beneath me, with dull warmth spreading over us both.

I forced my eyes open, the multicoloured spots darting across my vision. Cyndaquil no longer, Fury shook off the glittering veil with a menacing growl, transformed into something more agile and muscular. Quilava, I recalled vaguely, clasping her tighter.

She wriggled from my grip and sprang at Tobias with newfound courage and resolve. As the saying went, _God hath no fury like a woman pissed, _or something like that.

Bounding onto his chest she forced him to the ground, her teeth locked onto his wrist guard as he shielded his throat. One hand wormed free and grasped a Pokeball on his waist and grunted, "Go!" heaving her off.

Manifesting in a red _ZAPP! _cameWartortle. Its sleepy demeanour was gone and when it saw Tobias's rabid dog expression it exclaimed in confusion before lunging to his aid. Its solid skull caught Fury in the chest and she flew backwards smashing into a tree and sliding down moaning. Shaking away the daze she rose to her feet again.

She kept Tobias and Wartortle at bay as they worked together. While Wartortle rushed in from one side to tackle her she bounded aside and Tobias took the hit. He stumbled backward, out of the match for the moment. Wartortle and Fury traded blows, each getting as good as it gave. Then the Wartortle tripped, leaving an opening for Fury to take advantage of. She turned and a flood flames roared over Wartortle and when the flames were lifted, they revealed a charred Pokemon. Wartortle wasn't dead but it would just be in intensive care for a while.

But Tobias wasn't finished yet. Just as I had been catching Pokemon, so had he and a Geodude appeared from his Pokeball in another dazzling blast.

_Oh no, Fury doesn't have a chance against a rock type,_ I dismayed, holding my head in my hands as I watched with morbid fascination. I climbed to my feet with the help of a tree trunk. That's when Tobias got back to me.

"I'll show you whose boss!" he yelled in my face and his backhand whipped across my nose.

Blood flowed freely.

My head rolled and my vision was snowed under in a black abyss.

"What?" Tobias's voice came through blurred, hysterical and helpless. His hands let go of my shirt as if I was contaminated and I sank against the tree, sliding down with a breathy moan. "No, I didn't mean it, wake up kid!"

Again came another surprise from nowhere and through drooping lids I saw Tobias's boots stumble back at a girl's voice. But the last blow from Tobias had sapped the last of my resolve to stay awake and lapsed into unconsciousness.

"_Beep, beep, beep, beep._" I swatted at my alarm but my hand ached. Why'd I turn on my alarm, I never turn on my alarm? It was much too early for an alarm.

"Nurse, she's awake!" I peeled my eyes open to the harsh white lights of the hospital and remembered what had happened.

My eyes widened in anger. "Tobias, where is he?"

_"He escaped Topaz. Charlie didn't make it in time to catch him,"_ Fury said solemnly. I looked around for the source and breathed a sigh of relief as I spotted her at the end of my bed with Target and Talon. A small bandaid crisscrossed the bridge of her nose but she seemed otherwise fine, different in her Quilava form, but fine. "Where's Hoothoot?"

From the doorway leaned a figure, that Asian girl who had chosen Totodile at Professor Elm's lab who even now perched on her shoulder gnawing her long green braid. Her shaggy shoulder length hair framed her girlish face. "I'm sorry Topaz, but Tobias took Hoothoot with him," she said grimly.

Now I not only felt sore and weak as a kitten, but worthless too. I swore to protect my Pokemon and now one of them was in the hands of some kid who thought he was the Terminator.

"You couldn't have done anything about it, you were defending Fury," Charlie said forcefully, stepping into the room and up to the bed. I eyed her warily but she skirted around confidently to perch beside my other Pokemon, unmindful of my hesitation. Talon and Target nodded and backed her up with a melee of reassurance.

My Pokemon's support made me feel a bit better but I was till smarting from the beating. I shifted position but it released a whole new wave of pain. "How long till I'm better."

"You can leave now." A large beefy woman in a nurse's starched white glided through the doorway and up to my bedside, taking my hand roughly. She pressed her thumb tightly over the vein counting off the pulse silently. "You're fine although you'll be sore for awhile."

"Really? I couldn't tell," I grumbled sarcastically as she let my wrist flop down numbly after she was done. She glared tiredly at me, I knew all to well the _smart-arse kids, think they know everything_ look used by all adults. "Sign out down stairs when you're ready to leave." Soon, was obviously on the tip of her tongue but she gave my knee a parting rap to test reaction and left muttering under her breath.

Feeling equally annoyed I waited until she had left the room and closed the door with a click behind her. Fury picked her way carefully over my aching limbs and sat beside me on my pillow as I lifted myself into a sitting position and my other two did the same, sitting on either side of my knees watching carefully.

"Alright what happened," I said stiffening myself up watching the obvious city kid. She sat on top of the bench at the bottom of the bed with legs crossed, her elbow on her knee and running her index finger along the lobe of her ear. Her whole face was a bright beaming beacon. I restrained myself from barking what she thought was so funny but I could tell she was one of those people who just couldn't help it.

Those people annoyed me to no end.

She shrugged lightly. "Maverick and were wandering out along the edges of this copse of tree's, just looking for some Pokemon to catch. We heard a battle going on, it sounded fierce so we thought it was some experienced trainers and could grab some tips."

My eyes strayed to the sparkling red eyes of the Totodile named Maverick. His own rolled around the room like kids marbles and he probably hadn't thought anything of the sort.

"So we stumbled around for a while and suddenly we saw Tobias standing over the top of you, trying to shake you awake. He looked a'scared, mainly cos there was this freak'n huge Pidgeot shrieking in the tree and looked about ready to take him down like a Raticate. If Fury wasn't trying to turn him into a hotdog with that Geodude on her tail I woulda thought he was trying to help you. But he saw me and panicked, ripped a Pokeball from your hand, recalled Geodude and fled before we could ask anything. Fury told me what really happened, crazy creepazoid! I got you back here best I could, but your damn heavy for a little kid with no meat on her bones." I didn't know which remark insulted me more as I arched one eyebrow. "But luckily there was some big trainers about and they carried you. The kid's totally lost it."

"Saying he lost it is implying he had it in the first place, " I groaned grumpily, rubbing the scruff behind Targets's neck and he smiled sloppily, obviously liking it. But it was no consolation for the loss of Hoothoot. Charlie smiled warmly and came closer. "Okay mate, who are you?" I asked trying to be affable.

Her hand stuck out into my face with her own seeming to split apart in a wide white crescent. "Charlie Erban, I'm a native, from Goldenrod, the biggest city in Johto. Totodile's nicknamed Maverick and he bites anything and everything that moves, other then that is a strong fighter and very affectionate."

At this Maverick gave a jubilant gargle, breaking into a singsong chant of _"To! To! Totodiiiiile!"_

"You gotta tell me where you got the translators, maybe then I'll understand him," she mused, lifting him off her shoulder and hugging him around the waist. "I have a Sentret too, and a Spearow, and a female Nidoran. They're great too."

"I'll bet," I said dryly, squinting against the glare of the hospital lights as I lay back.

"Your right," she smiled maternally at my puzzled look, wondering what I had said. "Its like way late. You gotta sleep!"

She glided out the door without a further word, flicking the light switch off leaving me with dizzy dots flickering at the corner of my vision. My three Pokemon made equally startled cries, tripping over my legs beneath the freezing sheets but after a second they calmed down, wriggling into a comfortable position with Fury squirming underneath my arm and resting her head on my chest. She had been strangely quiet and I wondered if she was hurt worse then she appeared.

"Thankyou Topaz," she whispered, and with that warm glow in my chest, I drifted into a content sleep, praying tomorrow wouldn't be quite as painful.

I sat on the steps of the Violet city hospital, fingering the straps of my burdensome backpack midmorning the next day.

It had caused enough trouble just trying to get down the trillions of flights of stairs down to the counter, the various bits and pieces rubbing against the curves of my back like jags of stone with every step. And then the fee for a single nights stay! It was outrageous! I didn't eat anything and I didn't reckon I was that much trouble. I only called the nurse a dozen times or so through the night! Mostly to see if I could get something to eat!

On my lap lay the last of my maths homework. I despise maths but my parents both threatened if there was a dramatic fall in marks, _baddabing_ _baddaboom_ I was back home. If I could complete the last of the quadratics without having an epileptic fit and post it, I was home free until I could pick up my next set in Azalea.

But my heart wasn't really in it, I kept seeing Hoothoot's disgruntled face at the idea of being given a human name. Was being trained really that bad?

Either way Charlie left a note at the administration desk saying she'd be back and she would travel with Fury and I. That was lucky as I wasn't crashhot about going off on my own again. I had that weird feeling like Tobias was gonna track me down or something. So I waited, Fury wandering around the footpath snuffling whatever pungent aroma happened to catch her fancy. I asked her how she felt about her new evolution and she thought it was brilliant, her exact words.

_"It's like eating a whole heap of sugar! I have so much energy, keener hearing, way sharper eyesight. My sense of smell has gone down in equal amount though."_ She wriggled her nose pertly at that and jumped down the next couple of steps enthusiastically. She was really enjoying the new mobility of a Quilava.

I stared at the building across the street; its panelled window's with wide shutters and billowing curtain's seemed to wink at me as I carried on the song cut short be Tobias's arrival yesterday.

"Let's see, where was I?" I mumbled allowed, gnawing the chips of paint off the pencil tip and spitting them disgusted into the garden. Fury looked up from a bed of daffodils with pollen powder all over her muzzle and I smiled painfully at her. "Your lucky your illiterate." But I was already teaching her the rudimentary skills of the alphabet, and hopefully she would pick up the slack and teach my other Pokemon. You never know when it would come in handy.

"Hellooo-ohh!" I looked up from the steps to see Charlie's bright smiling face but it blanched in surprise, almost stepping on Maverick as he weaved in and out of her feet. "My gawd, aren't you gonna put make-up on that nose, or that eye?"

Self-consciously my hands went to my nose, feeling mashed and tender. Okay, I'm a coward, I couldn't look myself in the mirror but from that reaction I obviously was no Lorelei. As for my eye it did feel a little swollen, but those were a dime a dozen at home. Us and the Kath kids played pretty rough so it didn't bother me.

"I mean, uh, you're looking, um, better!" she tried to cover it up glibly, waving it away.

My eyebrow arched in reply. "Look if you're done with the beauty tips why don't you grab a seat and tell us where you were this morning?"

"Loveta!" she chirped, bouncing up onto the raised cement and leaning on the cap of a Blissey statue staring serenely out into the street with its hands clasped. "See, I'm a kid who wakes with the sun and lives for the nightlife! Sleeping seems such a waste of time when there's stuff to be done. Maverick and I went for a bit of sight seeing and we caught up with the Pokemon Academy here-"

"They have a Pokemon Academy?" I asked ponderously, not looking up from the equation I tapped into my calculator.

"Ahuh, the principal is a man named Earl. I sat in on his lecture," her expression turned puzzled, as if remembering a past riddle. " And before we leave Violet we're going to have to drop by the Belsprout Temple. A little down the road there's Union Cave; it needs a Flash HM to get through it."

She looked at me wait for my comments.

"Oh brilliant! I think I just reach into my Wonderbag and pluck one out, huh?" I said sarcastically, glancing up from my paper. I didn't see her expression but I jotted in the last answer and shoved it into the big yellow envelope ready to mail.

"Nhuh! I'm not stew-pid!" she retorted good-naturedly. "Didn't you hear? We go to Belsprout Temple, complete some challenge- I didn't catch that part-" another ponderous look. "And we win it from their head sage. Save a lot of backtracking."

"Sounds like a plan."

_"That's quite a wall."_

"Yeah, some wall."

"One big wall."

"What a wall."

"_What wall!_"

"Why the crap do they need a wall that big? Afraid someone's gonna nick of with their rice?"

Charlie turned slightly, with her hands on her hips piercing me with a keen look. "Some respect, please _fore-en-er_! Things weren't always safe round here! This temple goes back generations. I mean, it was here in my father's day!"

I rolled my eyes back at her. "Was that supposed to be a joke? I'm just saying that's one freak'n big wall."

Charlie, Fury, Mave and I were staring at the long length of the east wall that ran all the way round the little village in itself that was Belsprout Monastery. It tall with barely a crevice between the huge slate cinderblocks, each blue-grey cube sanded down so smooth I reckon you coulda skated on it. The top cinder blocks were all painted a pearly white without a flaw, unless you count the Pidgey poo. I don't know how they could perch comfortably on it, the whole top was studded with long steel spikes that gleamed in the bright sunlight piercing the tall shade trees.

The Belsprout Monastery was just north of Violet City along a path of white pebbles lined by trees. It was so beautiful in the soft shadow of the cherry blossom trees that Johto was known for. As I stared at their glossy trunks in wonder I desperately wished I had come there when they were in bloom.

"Its so romantic," Charlie cooed, spinning in a circle with her arms out wide as she skipped ridiculously down the path.

But now we were in the shadow something that looked more appropriate in a Hagar the Horrible comic then in this quaint grove. Fury nosed it curiously, Charlie ran her fingers along the minute grooves, I tried to figure out how the Pidgey's sat on it, and Maverick wanted to eat it, slurping it with his spongy pink tongue.

"Are we done yet?" Fury spoke up impatiently, sitting back with her paws folded. "I'm bored and I wanna fight something."

As she said this her eyes trailed after the Totodile bouncing past a little to eagerly. "Don't even think about it. Alright we're going."

Charlie hitched her bright blue backpack over her shoulder, jazzed up with various stickers and slogans, and led the way. Ahead the pebbled path curved around the South wall where the entrance lay out of sight. My feet crunched heavily over the stones while Fury padded at my side with a pitter and a patter.

"Iszat it?" I asked, with my regions customary laziness at speaking. Since coming to Johto I've realised our language is just barely English, with the first and last letters dropped or run together. And it was really annoying Charlie so I intended to keep doing it. Charlie looked up down from the branching Cherry blossom trees. Ahead poking above the straight line in the wall looked like a rise, or a roof jutting out made of logs painted in bright red and yellow. The closer we got the more I saw we were right.

"It's a prayer gate," Charlie explained pointing at the golden characters embellishing the column's on either side. Also on either side was a pair of identical egg shaped rocks as tall as Charlie or myself. On the far side was a gorgeous weeping tree, its limp branches swaying back and forth. I touch of homesickness struck me, reminding me of my own bower at the top of our tree house.

Fury barked jubilantly about to dart through the gate when suddenly the weeping leaves of tree parted belling out with a yell and a flash of cold steel hissing from its sheath.

I shrieked! Before I realised it I ran, leaping up and over the egg stone still screaming and cowering on top of it latching on with both hands. Fury howled, the flames on her back flaring up a hot white and Charlie leapt up, landing with her feet shoulder width apart, her fists raised, eyes narrowed and teeth gritted ferociously.

"What the crap do you think you're doing!" I panted with eyes like saucers. One hand was raised into cat claws, slashing the air at the bloke poised on the egg opposite me, his sword a hairs breadth from Fury's neck. I scrambled clumsily down of the egg fuming, and stalking towards him. "Look you," I snarled my own fist raised ready to hammer him into next Sunday when with another soft hiss a second sword materialised beneath my chin, tilting my swollen face up for him to see.

Through the sun's glare I saw a man in his late twenties perhaps with his brown hair close trimmed and a short rat's tail in a wrap. The midmorning shadows obscured his face from view but his mouth was set in a thin line. My eyes slide slowly sideways to Charlie and her absurd stance. "What the crap do you think your doing! Do something!"

"Um, what?" she sneered back, studying the bloke as she ushered Maverick behind her. Mave gurgled gleefully and began chasing a butterfly fluttering by. I studied him too. He was dressed in some sort of robe, a slate blue gi with grey hakama pants so he must be apart of the temple.

"You're trainers?" the man asked suspiciously, eyeing Charlie closely. That didn't sound like a good question, the kind where neither is the right answer but Charlie answered with controlled confidence.

"Yeah, we were told by Earl that we could come here to get the Flash HM. Do you actually think she's a threat?"

"I resent that," I snapped, the blade brushing too close to my skin for my liking.

Like liquid metal the swords slided silently back into the sheaths hanging off his pants and he bowed deeply before us. "My sincerest apologies, Team Rocket attempted a raid some time ago and has been in the area ever since."

"Apology accepted. My names Charlie and this is Topaz."

"Yeah, g'day," I mumbled, kneeling and gathering Fury close while rubbing my throat, still not exactly thrilled with the welcome.

"Greetings, I am Kazuma, a warrior of this temple," he said affably enough. "Please follow me."

I gave Fury another once over look, but she seemed fine, sauntering at his heels with bright garnet eyes as he lead us through the shadow of the arch. Charlie patted her ankle and called Maverick to her side. When he trotted up I saw delicate yellow wings sticking between his teeth as he swallowed with a cheerful "To!" I gagged in disgust.

"So, what's with this place?" I ventured catching up. On both sides small wooden bungalows sprouted up through gorgeous gardens and flowers flourished in choreographed patterns. The colours complimented or accentuated each other and tall bamboo shoots were used to separate them. In the distance behind what was a four-tiered pagoda of red and yellow I could see a river flowing into a miniature wetlands with herons and stalks grazing briskly through the tall reeds.

"Many centuries ago this temple was a key strategic point between Kanto and Johto when the two were at war. It was perfect because the temple was self sufficient, the monks unable to resist and secluded so that surprise attacks could be launched without reprisal. Legend has it that when the hour was at its bleakest, the monks called to the gods and they sent a messenger, a 100 foot Belsprout to drive them out. It succeeded and once its duty was done, it froze being rooted to the spot. As a sign of respect the monks built a tall temple around it and now it is a place of worship."

Kazuma beamed proudly, gesturing to the left. That must have been it, tall and regal this time painted an elegant maroon with gold trim, more clever characters running along the beams. As I peered closer I saw something incredible.

"Hold ya horses a moment, is that thing moving?" I blurted in disbelief, stopping mid-step with my hands raised to shield out the sun.

The samurai fella slowed, smiling. "It is, that is the spirit of the Belsprout in the centre beam as it sways. Many trainers come simply because it reminds them that they too were once as supple as the stalk of a Belsprout but as they grow with their Pokemon they become strong with rigid as the trunk of a full grown Shiftry." He spoke dreamily, and even though I didn't know what a Shiftry was, I understood what he was saying and how he felt.

His smile suddenly faded a little. " You said you wish to attempt the HM challenge. Are you certain, because once in you may not be able to find your way out?"

"How is that," Charlie asked,

"The challenge is a labyrinth, that building just ahead." True enough at the button of the white pebbled path cul-de-sac was a large building, both wide and tall, neither as bright or elegant as the ones that surrounded it. "It is full of traps and pitfalls, tricks and illusions, do you think your Pokemon are up to it?"

As he said this he strode across a narrow bridge crossing a channel of water trickling musically across the polished rocks. Behind him lay the gloomy entrance.

Without hesitation Charlie followed with utter confidence. "I believe in my Pokemon 100 and together we'll conquer anything you throw at us!"

"To!" echoed Maverick, waddling to stand beside her and his snout nodded enthusiastically.

I stared dubiously at the entrance. All I had was a Pidgey, a Sentret and a Quilava. How far could I get with just those three, barely trained with only a few days under our belts?

Kazuma saw my hesitation. "You may enter Char_lay, _and may your faith prove well founded."

She winked boldly back. "Of course, with this little fella what do I have to worry about?" She obviously didn't see the yellow scales flecking his teeth or otherwise she'd have been a lot more worried. Fury danced in and out of her feet as they faded into the murky house.

I shrugged, now or never.

As I was about to pass through Kazuma's hand stopped me. "The labyrinth is not something you should challenge if your faith in your Pokemon is not absolute," he warned. A cloud passed across the sun and the light dimmed and a cold shiver ran down my spine. I hung my head, shamefaced.

"How can I have her blind faith," I said, thumbing after the green haired trainer. This revelation hit me like a blow to the chest. I have always been confident, okay, arrogant, and this vulnerability, this fault was not something I could admit to easily.

Scotty's voice whispered in my ear just as it had the day down at the park. _"See Topaz, you just don't have the knack, you really should let me go in your place!"_

"My Pokemon are so young how can I have faith in them, when I don't have faith in me?"

_"I have faith in you, Topaz." _Fury's soft, solemn voice startled me, her thin drawn face peering around the corner, looking up at me with such warmth, such love I was speechless. I couldn't understand and I suddenly felt scared, thinking of Hoothoot and Tobias and how crap a trainer I'd been so far. _"I have faith with all my heart."_

I looked down at her helplessly, and then up at Kazuma imploring him to say something. He smiled approvingly.

_Inka Tninka Pidjikala._

"Then I guess that's all that matters," I whispered, my heart thudding in my ears. "All that matters."

But inside, I wasn't so sure. 


	4. WoC4a

ObsidianSpires  
2004-09-14  
ch 3, signed There was an old lady who swallowed a spider! It wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed a fly but I think she'll die. !Que triste! I never heard that saying before! Quite interesting. Quite a twinge of bad luck, but determination pulls through once more! Tobias's such a pig. ;P. I think showing his fear was an awesome addition, though. Makes for quite a lot of openings in later plots, too (not that I'd know what they were). After all, nobody's TOTALLY bad... except... hmm... anyways! I loved that fear in Topaz's eye here at the end! So human, so real! Unlike those blindly trusting, ooey gooey emotional trainers! shudder, I loved this part. Tezza's first real part of trainer PAIN! Hope things get better for her... NOT! (kidding) Btw, I suppose you're not updating original WOC, right? I don't think so. Will it follow basically the same plotline, though, like this one has? I'm just curious, you know, like you said the later stuff that would be coming up, I suppose if it came after Original WOC's events, it'd take a while, eh? . This is such a spectacular improvement now, (and it was great THEN) that I wouldn't mind at all, just curious. THnx! Miroku004  
2004-07-21  
ch 3, signed Aw, CRAP! Sorry I'm so late, but I just checked my mail for the first time in months, so... Yais... Anywho, great stuff! Also, I want your opinion on something. Should I start my revamped version of "The Journey", which will have new titleness, in Kanto, Johto, or Hoenn?

I'm going to your site to check out WOC there right now! (You've probably got a bazillion chappies...ugh...this is gonna take forever, but it's worth it!) The Mad Tortoise  
2004-04-19  
ch 3, signed COOLIES! Chappie 3... It's great! What can I say? Well, I like the screen time you're giving Charlie - the character fleshing in this version is really good. It gives a far better impression of her personality. I may have missed it in the chapter (like you, I'm a quick reader) but does Maverick have a translator? I'd like to see his personality developed. Such a cute little thing to run around chomping everything As for Fury and Topaz, I can't help but think Fury seems somehow nicer in this version. More trusting and less sarcastic. Personally, I like the sarcastic one better, but that's just by opinion.   
I have to say I'm really looking forward to the next chapter. Labyrinths are so much fun! Sounds great. Good luck.  
The Mad Tortoise. 

Once again my three most dedicated reviewers come through for me! Thanks guys! Gods among gods! If you ever need a website, give a yell!

ObsidianSpires You've never heard it? The second last verse goes "There was an old lady who swallowed a cow, I don't know how she swallowed a cow. She swallowed the cow to catch the dog, what a hog, to swallow a dog! She swallowed the dog to catch the cat! Fancy that to swallow a cat! She swallowed the cat to catch a bird, how absurd to swallow a bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider that wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly, I don't know why, she swallowed a fly but I'll think she'll die.  
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse, she died of course.  
I can remember singing it on car trips to annoy my parents, tehehe!  
**Miroku**, A review is never late, and always appreciated. Of course you should, don't quit because you don't get something right the first time. I'll be with yis all the way. Same goes for anyone else who wants help  
**The Mad Tortoise:** I love Mave too, he does have a translator, although he didn't in the first version. He gets his moment in the spotlight soon soon my prrreeeetty! Sooon!. Unfortunately in the coming chapters Fury becomes sappy, but she'll be real snippy by the end of Belsprout Tower.

Alright, lets hit it!

**Chapter 4a**

It was there, in and out of every dark passage way, down every midnight hall, through every obsidian black corridor. Water, the maddening sound of running water. It echoed off the walls, a rushing gushing sound. I could almost believe we walked above it, were surrounded in it, and were slowly being suffocated by it. The sound of running water just out of reach.

My gawd it made me thirsty, but I had to ration the round yellow waterbottle hanging around my neck.

And, above it all, no matter how much I tried to drown it out came the incessant gurgling whine of a totodile. Charlie's totodile to be precise, which as I pause to think, had been _this_ close to being my own. A totodile dubbed Maverick.

_"It's there Topaz! I swear, it keeps touching my shoulder. Sumtin's following me!"_

Combing the fingers of both hands through my now pitch coloured fringe, I restrained an aggravated sigh. Instead I let the pent up air whistle through my flared nostrils. That was safe enough. Resting my laced hands on top of my head I strained my eyes through the gloom.

Fury lead our ragtag group, her head crest and back issuing pale yellow flames barely illuminating half a foot in front of her. The harder I looked the more I saw how tired she was as she forced herself to keep her dim torches burning. Her bright garnet eyes drooped and teared, her foot falls were heavy and close together, and most of all her sweat slicked coat pressed against her ribs as she laboured to suppress her heavy breathing as she hid her exhaustion.

Another thin squawk erupted with claws scraping on lacquered wood and a clamour of cries drew my much needed attention from my poor quilava. My hands jumped to my ears, the air driven in made them ring as I waited for the echoes to die away. As I did so I tried to pick out Maverick's bottle-blue silhouette amongst our mottled crew sprawled like bowling pins.

Only six hours ago we had stood in a brightly lit chamber under the scrutiny of Kazuma the gate watching fella of the Belsprout Monastery. The first thing he ordered was that we hand over our Pokeballs, empty of Pokemon.

_Your whole team must brave the labyrinth free of confines, _he smiled in a very venerable, Yoda like way. _Secondly, you must also leave your bags behind. They are too heavy and cumbersome to trust. Take what you need and put them in your pockets. Make sure one of these is a water source. Third, step lightly, there are many traps active, dangerous but not fatal,_ he assured. Oh yes, right now I felt mightily reassured stumbling in the dark having almost fallen down five or six trap doors. _And lastly, be aware, on each of the four levels, one below ground and three above, there is a task to complete and the award will aid you very much in completing the next level. After the completion of a level you will be given a good meal so your concentration does not wane, but that is all._

He then opened a door leading downwards, bid us a cheery 'Good luck' and nicked out as fast as his skirt-pants would let him. And, with him went all light. Our troupe clambered like a stampede of Tauros to the bottom, apparently with a good amount of dirt and wood groaning above our heads.

Oh _yes_, safe as Skitties!

If those Skitties happen to be in an underground tunnel just short of collapsing.

"Don't worry, I have this figured out," I heard Charlie smirk almost immediately as I flapped my hand in front of my face, thinking it couldn't possibly be as dark as I thought it was. "I've got it _all_ figured out. Nina's got keen night sight and tunnel instinct, being a ground type. She'll get us somewhere quick smart!"

She flourished her arm like a woman on a game show. _ You've won this fabulous car!_

Well, I guess I have to be honest; Charlie's female nidoran did get us somewhere quick smart, so perfectly and completely lost, it was a piece of art. I couldn't have done it better!

The rodent Pokemon began cautiously at first with an enthusiastic Fury trotting beside her, bathing the thin and tangled corridors in red and gold. Talon and Target frisked about, the pidgey and the sentret bantering casually back and forth with Charlie's other Pokemon, Mave, sentret and spearow. We were all pretty optimistic, despite the booby traps that must have been designed specifically to trap short, ill-tempered midgets who weren't paying attention, and especially so when Nina started to pick up the pace.

But after a while, I picked up a pattern to her choices. That, and I stubbed my toe on the same rock four times in twenty minutes. I swear! I saw the blood marks!

I let loose my infamous temper on the little tyke, and though I regretted it second they left my mouth, it didn't stop Charlie loosing her own battalion of colourful words. I think we screamed for five full minutes to keep our voices down!

So we trekked on by our own wits.

Was it any wonder we didn't get anywhere?

Nidoran cowered out of my line of sight and I made a mental note to corner the little sheila later and apologise- while Charlie wasn't watching of course. Couldn't' let her see I was -er- what's that word? Wrong? Me? Wrong? No, that' couldn't be it! Why the earth would collapse in on itself!

And now here we were, deep in oblivion.

I dwelled pessimistically on the mistakes made so far as I watched the Pokemon haul each other up from their little pile, muttering darkly at Maverick the totodile. They'd had enough too.

_"Oh for Mew's sake!"_ snapped Javelin the spearow, gnashing his beak menacingly at Mave as he shovelled him off his outstretched wing. "_Grow up, there's nothing there!"_

With another flash of his beak he chased Maverick away and set about rearranging his mussed feathers. Maverick skittered further out of reach with a sniffle, turning his back on us. I pitied the poor bugger but as much as I wanted to comfort him, or to be more precise, give Fury enough time to get her wind back, I couldn't. We needed to press on and navigate down these miserably dark halls chasing his own half mad trainer as she stalked out a path.

I squinted hard ahead, griping a beam about elbow height that had run along each wall since the beginning, and when it wasn't there, you had to tread carefully. It was probably intended for trainers such as ourselves.

"Where the bloody heck is Charlie?" I wondered aloud.

Fury's said softly, _"Last time I saw her she disappeared down that T-junction ahead."_

I squinted harder. There were a lot of halls peeling off from the one we were currently on. "What T-junction?"

_"It's there."_

_"You know," _I heard Talon on my right say thoughtfully to Target. _"Now would be a great time for that whining Hoothoot."_

My shoulders slumped morosely, feeling everyone's little stowaway, _ self-pity_ creep in and whisper in my ear.

_Wuss, wuss, wuss!_ It rasped in a singsong voice._ If you had stood up to that Tobias kid you'd be fly'n high right now, wouldn't cha?_

I ignored it, pressing it away. I could beat myself till ragnarok came but right now I was the only human around and that meant I was responsible.

Hmm, I'd never thought I'd hear 'I' and 'responsible' used in the same sentence without 'not' to accompany it.

_Well there you are, things are changing already,_ Charlie's bright mental voice told me.

While these voices nattered on and on inside my head, a third telling me in a very convincing voice that schizophrenia could be a very real possibility, I plodded on watching the pale gleam of Mave's pebbled skin out of the corner of my eye, little more than a skinny bluish crescent off his haunch. His bright dish eyes were also in discouraged slits but quickly he fell back to far out of the lights flicker and I settled into a state of Zen blankness, letting the beam under my nail gnawed fingers guide the way.

_"I GOTCHA!"_

My thoughts scattered as Maverick's high gurgling voice rose like a racing steam train whistle down a tunnel. I screeched too! Shoving my back to the wall out of harms way with the beam burrowing into my back and let out a savage cat like hiss, warning away anything coming for me! Finally I got a grip of my cowardice and stepped into the middle of the hall. Another furred fleeing Pokemon skittered under my legs and knocked one askew.

"Fury!" I barked frantically, scanning futilely through the dark to follow Maverick's angry struggles. His screams of high pitched rage bumbled around, scraping and scratching the floor bounced off the walls each time louder but with a congested snarl, Mave's wails became muffled.

"Fury!"

"_Here!_" Fury's breathy voice shouted, her claws clacking the floor as she slid wildly between my legs and bounded to her feet radiating a skinny aura of yellow, just in time to see the totodile smack unceremoniously into the wall and land on his back with one foot twitching and his eyeballs rolling.

"Maverick!" We all blurted clustering around him uttering a chorus of apologies. I gathered him into my lap, looking at him helplessly while sparing a quick look around the briefly illuminated hall. Ahead was a lane leaving this one, and another further up, and a T-Junction far ahead. I sighed in frustration. Where was Charlie!

Fury nosed her way under my arm, the light extinguishing with her crest flame and nuzzled under his chin. In the faint glow of her tinder pads, where her flames came from, I saw a thin red ribbon trickling down his chin as he sobbed and sniffled.

"There there!" I said in a panicky squeak, trying to catch hold of his tail whipping back and forth. I grabbed at it but it slicked through my fingers and I yanked my hand instinctively back, knowing what the wet substance was. Luckily growing up amongst my brother and the Kath kids, I was no stranger to blood, both mine and others.

I ordered the sentrets to keep on look out for what it was, wondering which pocket I shoved the first-aid kit in. My dad had drilled it deep into my subconscious that that was the second most important thing to have on you at all times, after a water source.

While the other Pokemon assured him, I slung aside the canteen draped over my shoulder shuffling through my bulging back pocket to fish it out. An old pencil case filled with bandages, antiseptic medtape, gauze and aspirin. I contemplated taking an aspirin but decided against it, simply taking out the gauze and medtape.

"Light Fury," I asked reluctantly. She shuffled out of the circle and ignited her crest again. I shooed the others out of the light and held Mave's quivering tail up to it. There, three pairs of punctures oozing long drips onto my bare leg.

"Hang on," I mumbled with a sneaking suspicion already forming in my mind. Carefully taking his bottom jaw between my thumb and forefinger I exhaled in a whoosh that was partly in relief, and partly to stop me from exploding. It had been his tail following him the whole time!

"Okay. You can stand down fellas, false alarm."  
Both Target and Charlie's sentret gave a disgruntled squeak and lowered themselves off their raised tails.

_"You wuss,_" muttered Talon, eyeing the totodile blackly.

"_You're mean!"_ Mave whispered. "_I bith my tongue! I hath thith plathe! Ith dark and sthcary! I wanth Charlieeeeeee!"_

He broke off with hiccuping sobs and wails.

"Mave! Maverick what's wrong?" From out of the darkness finally rushed Charlie, sliding from around the first corner with her long braided hair chasing her like a bright green snake. Barely panting she scooped him, waiting with wide blue arms, up ignoring the little spatter of red droplets for the moment. She shushed and fussed over him, taking the gauze and tape, attending to the punctures like a trained nurse. I stared at her questioningly and she shrugged. "Pre-Journey Amateur First Aid Class."

"Smartarse," I muttered, with a good deal of Metonia's famous _cutting down the tall poppy_ syndrome. I had skipped that one, letting Nurse Joy do the job she was paid to do. In fact, I had skipped a lot of them. Most of the teachers Journey days were long behind them. I mean, I may as well have asked my Pokedex teacher to programme my VCR! As they say, those who can do. Those who can't, teach.

Meh.

Still sitting cross-legged. I leaned back letting my elbows support me. Gawd, I was tired, this Journey thing was way too hard. I could just nick home with the Pokemon I had.

Out of the darkness floated a heavy sigh.

"Fury, are you all right?" I asked, jerking my head every which way.

_"Yeah,"_ her voice drifted surreally back. _"Sorry, I just need a minute or two, then I'll be back on track."_

"Take your time, Fury," I soothed. "We can go on without a light."

"No we can't," objected Charlie sharply without looking up. She rose to her feet, shifting her weight and looking down the tunnel indecisively. "Fury, light up."

"Um, _No."_ I snapped. "Who's Fury's trainer here? Me or you? In case you can't tell, with your oh so brilliant medical expertise, she's karked it for the day. We can't go any further."

"Karked it?" she repeated wonderingly at my slang, but then returned sternly to the matter at hand with certainty. "We can't stop for the day, we have to get to the stairs or we don't have food. That means if we sleep now, we'll be even more tired tomorrow, no concentration and a smaller chance of finding the stairs, and then another day without food. That means we have to go on, and to go one we need _light!_"

Charlie struck the wall beside us with the flat of her hand for emphasis while I spluttered incredulously at Miss High and Mighty. "Look mate, I don't know why you think you're running this three ringed circus, cos I've got just as much a hand in leadership as you do! I reckon you're right about finding the stairs by tonight, but I'm not having Fury faint from exhaustion just because Maverick is afraid of the dark!" Then with a forced cheeriness that disgusted me, I blurted, "My night eyes are finally kicking in anyway, we don't need a light!"

I pushed myself upright using the guide rail and stalked past Charlie bumping her roughly aside. My confident stride stomped heavily on the floorboards, fuming furiously at the fact Charlie had the nerve to order my Pokemon around! If she wanted Fury she should have chosen her!

But, like Jimity Cricket my father's half laughing, half chiding voice interrupted. Jeeze, with all these voices going on in my head I was a regular ventriloquist.

_"Inka Tninka Pitjikala, Tezza!_ _A thousand feet! Is this so big you gotta waste your energy on it?"_

"Yes," I growled under my breath, sounding childish. I waited for the voice to reply, but my father's wisdom spoke true, as always. My steps lost their angry thud and I was now able to hear the stunned scuffle of my mates behind me.

All of a sudden I felt a faint eddy of cold moist air sift up from my left and that odd gushing sound riding on it. I pondered it for a second before calling back down the passage way, "I found the T-junction!" with only a smidjit of _I told you so!_

Only a little...

"No! Topaz! Don't rush down there!" Charlie shouted urgently from behind. But way too focused on being right to listen, I belted down the hall as if it had been encouragement instead.

_Thud, thud, thud, thud._

Reckon'd she could tell me what to do!

The rest of my resentful thoughts severed with a high tearing screech as my front foot plunged into nothingness. My body lurched into the abyss before me, pin-wheeling my arms wildly as the blustery sound of running water whooshed around my ears.

Just in time the patter of feet pounded towards me and in the lead like a comet ablaze was Fury loping sloppily engulfed in fierce sallow light.

I uttered a squeak and my arms stopped their pedalling and instinctively clutched to shield my eyes from the glare.

I toppled.

"Gotcha!" My scalp screamed as Charlie grabbed a hunk of my ponytatail and yanked me back onto solid ground. "You alright? You should have listened," she asked with concern, no touch of _I told you so_ in her voice at all.

"Ow," I whimpered, rubbing my head pitifully and still panting in tandem with Fury so that we sounded like a pair of dying steam pressers. Oh gawd that was way too close, but with morbid curiosity I peeked over the edge of the lacquered wood.

Splashes of light danced off in slim silver ripples of a great inky ribbon, so black it could have been the river Styx. I shivered at its smooth glassy surface.

"What the?" I mumbled, if a little incredulous to Fury. "That can't be the little creek we saw outside."

"It has to be an underground river," Charlie mused to herself, but her straight shoulders and brimming confidence looked like trouble. "How clever!"

To me, that's the most irritating thing about the optimists of the word, they refuse to give up.

"This is going to be a problem," I said morosely, chewing my thumbnail frustrated. We were just beginners for bloodysake!

"Nonsense! Problems are just solutions in work clothes," Charlie laughed, leaning over my head and squinting into the dark. "See, there's a gleam in the darkness, rails or screws or something. It must be a platform!"

"Now, you see I have my own proverbs I use at a time like this, Try, try, try again- then quit. Don't make an arse of yourself. What if those gleams of yours are actually metal spikes ready to spear us!"

"Nonsense!" she repeated cheerily.

"_Please_." I looked around for the source of the shaky voice, and was astonished that it _was_ actually Fury's. Gone was its spirited bluster, little more than a tremor in the moist flush of air. _"I'm so tired. Can we rest?"_

"That's it!" I barked. "I am putting a stop to this until Fury is rested and strong."

"We don't have the time!" urged Charlie with alarm but the other Pokemon chorused their tired agreement, a miserable sound. Charlie relented, letting her back slide down the wall till she sat amongst her team.

With a discouraged sigh, I reached into my pocket again, past the first-aid case and withdrew four bars, three incredibly expensive _ Rarecandy _bars and a simple choc covered oat bar for myself. My little savings fund was quickly running dry so I was desperate that the pay off of this tower would be worth it or we'd be up the creek without a paddle. Still, trying to keep a brave face, I blindly passed out the snack bars and I heard them munch in silence. I however turned mine over in my hands, grudgingly knowing what I was going to do. I was absolutely ravenous, but Fury was our life line.

"Here Fury," I said gently, holding it beneath her nose. After a moments hesitation I felt her paw pad brush my palm.

I stared into the nothingness again, everyone left to their own taciturn thoughts, the slow chewing sounds made it seem as if I was huddling amongst a herd of cattle bedded down for the night.

I began to worry as I flipped the lid of my PokeGear strapped to my wrist. The red digital numbers 4:17 glowed back tauntingly. If we were this demoralised little more than six hours in, how would we cope? If one floor takes more than 12 hours, we could clock up a week in no time.

"Okay, are we ready?" Charlie asked, peevishly shuffling to her feet without waiting for an answer.

"How 'bout you mate?" I murmured to Fury. I can't say that her crest leapt up like an erupted volcano but at least she looked a bit keener. I smiled, stroking her under her chin and she gave an easy-going _Quiiiiilll_.

"Okay, let's do this," I groaned not quite as whole hearted. "But let's do this the smart way. Talon, flutter over there and see if that's really a platform. See if its firm and try to gauge how far away it is."

_"Righty-oh_," he chirped, his pidgey body being buffeted by the cool gusts emanating from below. Moments later his brash voice floated back. _"Yep, definitely a platform. It's pretty big, five wing lengths one way, and three the other. It can hold my weight, but I guess that doesn't say anything 'bout you, eh Topaz?" _he goaded playfully.

"Ha-dee-ha," I said dryly, unable to keep from smirking.

_"It's also about 10 wing lengths away."_

Charlie and I pondered over this together. "So that's about three metres away, or three and a half-"

"Three or four metres, you gotta be joshin!" I squeaked. "I sucked at long jump. In fact I sucked at athletics, fullstop!"

"See, no problems, Tez. Can I have full light, please Fury?" Fury obliged slowly warming up and I could now see the platform ahead now. I could also see how far we actually had to jump.

I was gonna be sick.

With ease the long legged Charlie picked up nidoran in one hand and her sentret tucked in her armpit around its plump belly. She strode back for a run up, and "Alioop!" sailed across the divide landing with her legs bowed. I winced, half expecting the flimsy looking boards to splinter and her crumpled body to plunge into the river with barely a splash never to be seen again.

"See, easy!" She sprang nimbly back across. I marvelled at her strength but that just terrified me even more. It wasn't the height above the water, heck no! I could spring from one tree to another as easily as a Clairvora, a rodent Pokemon with flaps of skin between its limbs allowing them to glide, but never could I clear anything over three metres and I would drop as sure as Sunday.

I blinked away my thoughts to see them land on the platform again, wobbling on one leg before planting the other leg to steady herself and let Target and Mave slip beneath her arms onto the platform.

Target rose on his tail, his long ears twitching. "_Come on Topaz! Its fun!"_

"Sorry ta bust your bubble sweetie," Charlie said with amusement. "But I really don't think I could carry your trainer under my arms, no matter how small she looks."

"Oi!" I exclaimed insulted, fumbling for a comeback. "Yeah, well, um... Muscles weigh more then fat and I am 100 pure muscle!"

Charlie vaulted across the gap, now showing slight fatigue. Where on earth did this kid come from? She straightened quickly and before I could stop her finger dipped under my stubbornly folded arms and pinched my ribs teasingly.

"You keep telling yourself that!" she giggled gleefully, dancing out of reach as my fingers snapped on thin air, aiming to break off the offending finger like a twig. She laughed again, her arms swooping around Fury's middle backing down the corridor for a run up. The quilava's flames dimmed to allow Charlie easy grip and now barely a bolt pin was visible. My heart leapt to my throat as the two launched into the gloom.

"Drop her and I'll turn you double jointed!"

_Ka-splooosh!_

"No!"

"What! What! What!" I cried, charging forward with ears strained, barely catching myself from diving into midair. My head wagged frantically from side to side, gripping the lip of the gap thinking hysterically. _It swallowed her! Styx swallowed Fury in one big gulp!_

I almost mistook the double thump for my own rabid heart beat tugging on my aorta like a dog on a leash. A familiar peel of laughter rang over the water and the unsteady yellow glow once again suffused the corridor revealing my Pokemon sitting upright with one paw hiding her eyes and the other just barely keeping her from falling over in convulsions.

I stared wordlessly then asked, forming the sounds with difficulty. "What about the splash?"

"My $40 hairbrush!" Charlie said, looking crushed.

"You spent 40 bucks on a stupid brush?" I asked, testing the words on my tongue but still couldn't believe it. Then it made another circuit connection. "Wait, Ol'mate guard fella said take only what's necessary, and you brought a clunky hairbrush?"

"I can't very well concentrate with my hair in my eyes!" she retorted, eyes shifting defensively. "Forget it! Jump!"

"I can't," I mumbled in a small voice.

"If you fall, its only shallow, barely a ripple!"

"What, are you crazy? That's an undertow City-Kid."

Two summers ago in Kyeema there was a scorcher if ever there was one, the kind where you lived in a pool and dined entirely on ice-cream and watermelon, but we had spent the last of our pocket money at the Kyeema store and the local swimming hole, the Cascades were chocked full of kids to be even bothered so we had taken to roaming through the sclerophyll forest on Farmer Bucket's property in search of the strange Pokemon the extreme weather had brought out.

While ducking in and out of the trees, keeping a lookout for the Arcanine at the same time we stumbled onto Bucket's irrigation channel. With squeals of delight we bolted for it and quickly stripped down to the bare essentials on the grainy bank. As I stared at the surface, the surface exactly like the one below us 'cept the smooth mud and discarded plastic chip packets rushing by at a tremendous pace. Those alone should have set off warning bells but I was just as excited as everyone else and to me there was nothing ominous or foreboding, only a gift sent from Halo, the legendary Hummingbird Pokemon.

While I was tangled in the straps of new thongs, the shoe kind people, Matty had oozed out of his like a slimy fish and bombed into the glassy beige water. Almost instantly there was a sickening _sllleeewwp_ sound, like sucking jelly through a straw, and he was gone.

For a moment we stared at the spot, legs half out of shoes and arms twisted in sleeves, immobile, expecting him to breach the water with his wicked aipom grin calling us slowpokes. We waited, and waited, and waited forever, plus one. Suddenly, barely two seconds after he hit the water he resurfaced with a gurgling hysterical scream 10 metres away. Another faint _slewp!_ and he was gone again.

"Matty!" we screamed as one. With one foot half raised I stretched out to chase after him but my other foot caught the strap of my thong and I crashed nose first into the dirt. But much more sure footed, Jarrod absolutely flew, tossing his shirt aside with my brother Scotty doing the same, his large frame hiding surprising agility.

Now Matty struggled to bob up and down, a mop of brown hair suspended in brown ice, his gaping mouth swallowing air and water in equal amounts.

Jess and I gawped in childish bewilderment as her brother rushed further and further away, and as the realisation finally caught up to our poor short circuited brains, they kicked into gear and we bolted. The two boys began to run away from the channel. I yelled after them that they were Scaredyskitty's but suddenly glimpsed what they had, the massive splintered limb of a gum tree, lightning struck by the last monsoon storms. Both grabbed a sturdy branch and they tried to drag it after them.

Too slow!

As I ran on still tracking Matty, time was precious. Only about a hundred metres down the channel disappeared underground and if Matty disappeared down there we'd have a lot of explaining to do to Maria, their mum.

Too panicked to consciously think, I darted back, snatching up Matty's shirt and then the boys. Ahead Jess had joined Jazz and Scott's fevered tugging and was now on a roll, the dry crispy leaves raking the sand behind them. As I raced over, knotting the boys T-shirts together, I ordered Jess for hers and wretched my own off. This was no time for modesty and we were too young to have anything to be modest about anyway.

Now with less than fifty for the storm drain, I pissbolted. If there had been an Olympic trial I would have blitzed everyone because the second I took off, I was there mirroring Matty. He looked sick and exhausted, his scruff of brown hair plastered over his cheeks and swirling around. He was no more than a doll in a washing machine.

"Matty, catch!" I screamed as he ducked under again, flinging the line of shirts into the water, and they were sucked under too! My heart popped and my head moaned, _No-way-no-way-no-way!_ but as if I had a huge cod on the other end I was yanked forward and Matt spluttered to the surface with Scotty's blue polo in a death grip. But the current was strong, too strong for my scrawny arms; it just kept dragging me in!

I jabbed my heels into the earth and threw my weight back, now balanced but the current battered Matty, tumbling him over and over, wringing the shirt taunt like a Rockatile in a death roll. I strained against it grunting and groaning, my arms aching and behind me the frantic scrape of leaves and Jarrod's voice urging them to "Go! Go! Go!" drew closer.

As my strength waned, my feet slithered and skidded on the sandy bank and Matty was being sucked beneath for longer at a time.

Suddenly there was a slip and my legs buckled. Opening my eyes screwed shut with exertion, to my horror the knot hitching Jazz's and Matts shirt together were pulling apart. The water sloshed and Matty bobbed above again.

"Hurry!" I moaned, struggling for purchase again but the other three had already hoisted the immense branch upright and with a terrific splash it sent a spray of droplets high into the air. The catcher was in place.

"Leggo Matt!"

He didn't have to because the knot gave way first. Like a vengeance he was dragged down and we all held our breath but moments later a limp arm poked up through the branches and seconds later he sprawled like a drowned cat over the main branch. I threw myself spread eagled on the dirt, brushing off the clods caking my heels while the sun heated sand blistered my bare back, but I just couldn't believe what had happened.

Laughingly Scotty butted my ribs with his toe, still panted. "Remind me not to trust your knots."

I gave a breathy chuckle, wanting to amputate my arms to relieve the throbbing but in the distance I heard the baleful howls of Bucket's Arcanine was drawing closer like wildfire, so skiddadling was foremost on our to-do list. Scotty hefted the soggy noodle Matty had become onto his back and we lumbered through the trees for the fence line.

The sounds and phantoms of the day faded away, except of course for the sucking and popping and gurgling of the underground river below. I could now even smell the heavy, mineral richness of the water. I blinked away the last few desperate moments of Matty's dramatic rescue and stood up with a firm "Nu-uh."

_"Oh for gawds sake Topaz, stop being such a baby!"_ Fury cajoled from the middle of the platform, perfectly _safe._

"I'm not being a baby," I shot back lying magnificently. "I'm looking out for my own neck! I can't jump that!"

"Of course you can," Charlie patronised.

Those little talons of fear clutching my heart shrank back when my customary spitefulness reasserted itself. "Fine, you think you know what my scrawny-" Fury gave her customary snort, -" I'll ignore that, legs are capable of, that's just fine! I'll jump just so you can see me plummet and get all swallowed up by that river down there. Then you'll be sorry!"

"What are you, five?"

"Shutup!"

I strode back for a run up, looking over my shoulder and then went further back. I heard little comments of exasperation but ignored them going further still. Fury's flames sent ghostly red shadows flickering up the sides and across the slopping roof of the broadening corridor, giving the illusion that even I could touch the roof. I inhaled a slow meditative breath and galloped down the wooden floor, slamming my heavy tread down and pushing off again. The drop off loomed closer and like an idiot so consumed to prove Miss 'Let's-have-a-picnic!' wrong I almost jumped short on purpose but Matt's short gurgled gasp floated across realities and at the last second my toes inside my sandshoes curled over the edge and VWOOOM! I was in mid air with limbs akimbo like a doduo trying to fly.

"YAHHHH!" I warbled, crashing heavily onto my feet but momentum still carried me forward and I needed a couple of extra steps to right myself. Unfortunately our island platform didn't have those extra large steps. But _once_ _again_ a hand snatched my suspenders and yanked me flat on my arse, _again_ and I whimpered, rubbing my jarred tailbone.

"You have to stop doing that!" I whined up at her.

"Your welcome!" Charlie said blithely ignoring the tone. Did she even hear me? "Hey, what's this?"

"What's what?" I muttered, mulling over my bruised dignity and I really didn't care about the tall cement pylons jutting out higgilty piggilty with the water slapping angrily at their bases. Algal growth clung to the aged greenish concrete with dozen's of marks scoring their round bodies. On top I could vaguely make out carved holes, like donuts or something.

Mmm, I could have really gone for a donut.

"Hmm, I guess that's what these are for," Charlie mused aloud, moving behind me to the left wall. The clatter of wood made me turn and pay attention. The lime haired trainer folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot as she peered at stacked mounds of planks while the sentret pair clambered over them, inspecting them playfully. These too had been altered. On top were holes drilled through and on the bottom directly beneath were knobs so that they stacked easily, fitting on top of each other like jigsaw pieces, so it didn't take a genius to realise what they had to do with the pylons.

"Okay," I ventured slowly, standing up and brushing myself off. I directed our little posse into a cluster so I could address them all seriousness intended. "It's pretty clear what we have to do, use these planks to build a bridge across. I reckon we have a couple things we have to be sure of. One, once we start, we don't stop," I said solemnly. "Like Charlie said, times getting away from us and I honestly think we're meant to complete each level in a day and its, ten to five now. Ol'mate said at the end of each level he'd give us a solid meal so he didn't intend for us to starve. 'Gree?"

Slow, inquisitive nods answered.

"'Kay. Two, Fury expends as little energy as possible. Her input is welcome but her main job is to keep a steady light, no matter what. I'm not over the moon with confidence in these planks here." I gave the pile a gentle kick. A few of the Pokemon grumbled but they knew it was sensible. Who knew how much of this idiotic challenge was left.

"Lastly, I vote rather than a democracy we go for a, um, whadaya-callums? Dictatorship. We chose a leader and we do everything they say, no questions asked."

"Good thinking, Topaz," Charlie smiled coolly. "Any nominations? Each of the Pokemon's limbs shot up, waving round eagerly like a kid dying to answer a teacher's question. Reluctantly, very _very_ reluctantly, I raised my own and I said apathetically, "Charlie should."

Target and Talon looked shocked, their wings and paws slowly coming down.

"I'm impatient," I admitted sheepishly. "I always sucked at jigsaws, and this is just one big dangerous jigsaw."

I looked out over the gap, observing the smattering of pylons. It was if a painter had pulled back the bristles of his brush and let the flecks fly. I was suddenly glad to pass the responsibility of a screwup. Were it left up to me I'd be pacing agitated like a tiger in a cage and all my ideas trying to escape through my nostrils.

"-over there. Tez?"

"Huh?" I said dully.

Hmm, note to self, dwelling on faults leads to looking stupid. Maintain that you are perfect in everyway.

"I mean, right!" I would just watch what the others were doing and fluke it.

The Pokemon bustled diligently from side to side on the narrow platform with Fury in the corner looking weary but comfortable. Back in Kyeema, if either our parents or the Kath's mother had a job to be done, all five kids were drafted, whether it was simple gardening or cleaning out the abandoned spearows nests out of the shed rooves. And every time Jazz would stand back with that same laid back grin. When demanded what did he think he was doing, he would answer glibly from the shade. "Sup-vise'n. Tough job but someone has to co-ordinate!"

"Topaz!" Charlie rebuked a second time as she was measuring the planks in wingspans.

"Right, right!" I grumbled, squatting down beside her and doing the same. After a bit we had a fair idea what we had to work with.

Eight planks altogether, each 20cm in width, not particularly dry but solid, except for the slight flex in the middle. There were one 1m boards, two 2m boards, three 3m boards and a single four metre boards. From one end to the other it was 20 meters. Charlie had really taken charge, ordering the bird Pokemon to see if there was any 'rhyme or reason' to the positions of the posts. Came back with nadda so we'd be using everyone's favourite, trial and error.

Very time consuming.

"Alright, oh mighty leader, what next?" I prodded as we all stood bemused on the edge of the platform. It seemed we'd hit a road block, with no logical way to begin. After more meticulous exploration of the platform we'd discovered five notches carved into the edge of the drop off, for using instructions I guess.

"Well," Charlotte said slowly, squinting and making out the dull coin flicker of the bolts of the platform opposite. "I think we need someone on the other side, just in case we distort distances and stuff. One of the sentrets."

"Maybe take nidoran over too. She's too small to help with the planks, and I don't want to trip over her."

She nodded approvingly, scooping the rodent Pokemon up and explained to Talon and Javelin the plan. They each took one of Target's plump round arms and hefted him up, but it was like watching a little kid picking up a full bucket of water between his legs, puttering and weaving drunkenly before letting him fall with a muffled clunk. I could barely make out his cream and brown stomach as he picked himself up chittering indignantly at his heavily panting couriers, slumped on the dusty wood.

"Okay, now Nina!" Charlie's voice floated across the gap impatiently.

Of course this abrupt order didn't go over well and Javelin's raucous laughter came cheekily back. _"Then flap your wings and get a move on!"_

"Hadeha," she said humourlessly. I could practically see her staring down at the faint incandescent numbers of her 'Gear, magicked from the pouch on her waist, as if willing it to stop its dutiful march. The spearow quickly got the idea his trainer wasn't joking, flapping back to allow the female nidoran to scuttle aboard and taxied her across without a lot of fuss.

"Sorry guys," she tried to sympathise with them when they both sank their podgy feathered bodies down. "But it looks like you'll have most of the work. Now find the three closest posts."

That wasn't too hard, I could see one on the left side, barely a metre out, so close I could have stepped out onto it. The others were two metres out on the far right with Javelin preening, and Talon resting on one four metres out from the second notch. Each called out where they were in a riddle of wing-lengths and heart-side or non-side and it took more than five minutes to figure it out, even though we could fairly clearly see where they were.

"This isn't working," Charlie muttered, taking of her bright red goggles and polishing their lenses, studying her reflection in their blackish glass. It was the first time I'd seen her anything but cheerful. "Okay guys, come here, I'm teaching you the metric system."

In Fury's wavering torchlight, she scratched out a metre into the platforms smoothed surface with the tip of her black and white pendant attached to her necklace and the Pokemon still on our side crowded over it taking note. I smirked knowing from my avid Pokemon study at least partly about the Pokemon brain.

In humans a specific chemical floods the myelin, the insulation of the nerve cell, which allows impulses to cross more easily without escaping, resulting in faster learning. But as people age, they don't produce as much, which is why they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

In Pokemon however, they seemed to produce this chemical prolifically through out life, perhaps an adaptation to defend themselves against humans or maybe even to help them rapidly adjust to their devices like the Pokeball.

Whatever the reason, the Pokemon clucked smugly; using both the left and right commands as well as the metric system with ease. We had also numbered the notches from one to five, from left to right. Something else Charlie felt the need to scratch into the wood. I felt acutely uncomfortable as she did this, having a stern upbringing to respect others property but Charlie waved away my objections, blithely insisting it was necessary.

"So, lets see. We have posts here, here and here," she mused, carving a miniature diagram.

"Now _that_ isn't necessary," I sniffed with arms folded beside Fury.

"Pish posh," she said absently, but at least stopped what I blatantly thought as graffiti. I mean, it was a temple for gawd's sake! "We'll start from the left, get a one metre plank Tez."

I did so obediently, spreading the planks like a palm of cards, slotting it into place listening for a distinctive _thunt_ sound as the knobs fitted in like a glove.

"Done." Charlie looked at me expectantly with her hands on her hips. "What?"

"Well you need to test it, you're the smallest."

"I resent that, and in that case, shouldn't the heaviest go first?" I batted my eyes innocently, unfurling my arms and spread my hands while shrugging.

Charlie's sparkling brown eyes and wide irrepressible grin suddenly narrowed dangerously. This simple body language was far more frightening than anything Tobias could throw at me. "Do it."

Bouncing up like a coiled spring from my squat I made an eager exaggerated salute. "Aye captain!"

I considered the board between my sandshoes, little more than a handspan and would bow in the middle. Add to this the distractions of the wavering shadows and the roiling waters. Sucking in a tight breath I snapped inwardly, _"For bloody sakes girl! Its one –freakin- metre! If anything happens, just step right back!"_

More easily said than done, I can tell you that. I could feel the others waiting anxiously, their beady little eyes digging into my back, so tangible it was like twisting a broomstick between my shoulder blades.

I slowly let out my pent up air and cautiously placed one foot into the middle, light as a Nymbis, a fluffy cloudlike Pokemon of Metonia that had a habit of following ill tempered people home and literally raining on their parade. Yes, that is from experience.

I shot a worried look over my shoulder at Charlie. She made a crisp shooing motion, no help there.

With a one, two, three I planted my other foot stiffly beside it feeling like one of the guards of Buckingham palace wobbling on a surfboard. Just as we predicted, the thin board dipped slightly in the middle and in the longer ones this would be far more pronounced. With my ankles glued together my balance was pretty shot, so I shifted them shoulder width apart, watching the splashes of light on the smooth cascading water between my toes.

I bounced up and down a little with more confidence, feeling the slight shift of the knobs in the notches, but even I had to admit it was safe.

"Yeah, no worries," I confirmed. "This one at least. Now what?"

"How far away is the next one?"

"'Bout two and a half metres, 25, maybe 50 degrees to my right."

"Well at least we have a guide," she said, sounding pleased. "Method to our madness, I guess. Unless it's exact it's the wrong way. Get off, we'll try the two metre one."

With a playful bounce I hopped back onto the platform, pulling the board out with a bit of effort, as my, dare I say it; weight, had jammed it in further. It was alright here I guess, where I could yank as hard as I wanted and weave from side to side to get it loose, but what about being stuck in the middle. I suddenly had a clear vision of me squatting on a board and grunting as I struggled to free a knob when it came loose with a cartoony pop! and me capsizing over.

"I'll let her do that part," I muttered with the plank under my arm as I passed behind her back as she crossed her arms.

Charlie already had the two metre one ready and pushed it into my hand. Oh, now I saw! I was the packhorse on this expedition!

"What was that?" she asked pleasantly.

"Nothing!" I said with a perfectly straight face. "Not a thought in my pretty little head!"

_"I'd believe that,_" squawked Talon, huddled on a pylon with his feathers fluffed out and his beaky grin barely visible, but I paid no attention, wedging the board in and nonchalantly strolled out to the other side, standing stiffly on it feeling far more vulnerable further away from Fury and her dim little halo.

"Talon, my smarmy friend, get over here," I cooed, and he glided warily up to my outstretched arm. I pointed to a far out post nestled against the right hand wall. "You're my little messenger pigeon, so how far away is it? And don't show off your barrels rolls, you'll be doin' a lot of flappin' buddybird."

"_Wha!"_ he grumbled as he swooped onto it latching on with his talons outstretched and wings flared. "_Four metres_."

"Bugger!" I swore, thumping my thigh with my fist. I stared across the gap with stormy concentration when something nudged my back making me wobble.

I turned around glaring and Charlie was holding out the four metre plank and quickly tried to thrust it out to its full length. As its end fit into my fingers, loose splinters pressed weakly into my hand, but snapped off without piercing. Gripping it tighter and running my hand lightly over the moist surface I realised this one had been on the bottom and exposed to more moisture. Damnit!

The further I threaded it out, the less I trusted it, brushing my fingers against a furry moss growth and the middle had an almost pulpy surface. I wouldn't go so far to call it death incarnate, but I sure as hell wasn't head over heels with confidence. Without a word I stopped passively receiving it and locked my elbow which sent me askew again as Charlie tried to force more down.

"What now?" she huffed, glancing at her 'Gear again. I levelled her with my specialty, usually reserved for people I wanted to tell politely to piss off, a dead pan stare I could hold for as long as it took without blinking. "What? Oh come- Wuss! I mean, please? No? Fine." She trailed off with deep muttering as I passed the four metre plank back. I plucked up the two metre one and we laid the four'er down, almost at 90 degrees. Charlie chirped how this one should have been the logical choice from the start and after using a metre board we developed a simple method. The sentrets spied out the long term, checking with them every second plank and the birds to wheedle if the choice was any good. I lead the way and Fury right behind, Charlie's sentret between with Maverick and thy lord dictator Charlie, well, dictating.

Even so we managed one major bugger up, within, say six metres or seven from the end when we found ourselves snookered, nuzzled against the left wall and all three clustered choices not complete metres. We had no other choice but to backtrack. I kept my temper bridled but I was damn mad I would have grabbed the planks and hurled them into the great big ink blot below and waste the last of my energy. Instead Charlie mustered her undiluted enthusiasm and carefully, planned where to go with this, 'newly explored perspective'. Why is it that optimists have a way of making everything sound like its from a lifestyle magazine?

So we trundled back and paved our way with reasonable ease. I had my sea legs and Charlie practically skipped when she fetched a board back, but Fury crouched low to the plank and shuffled down with her scruffy and dusty cream fur, but her light remained stead.

Despite my conscience I hardened myself to her weary grimace; it was the only way we'd get to the end.

But then we hit a wall, two stuff ups for the price of one. We were 4 and 14/15th metres – don't ask- from the end without another post close enough to make it an easy transition, and, we were out of planks.

Of course there was the simplest of solutions and it didn't' even need to be spoken. Charlie merely trotted back and with a grunt hefted it out. As she came back she looked like a manic Charlie Chaplin carrying his oversized ladder fused with the Cheshire cat's crazed grin. The whole time she had been humming the first 14 bars of "It's a small world after all" over and over because it was stuck in her head and she couldn't remember the last line. That alone would have made me choke her had I been on firm ground. So with her obsession with that last line occupying her mind, was it any wonder that her tall prissy boots tripped her up?

She sucked in a tight breath that floated over the water and the dull gleam of her reflective goggles pitched forward. The plank see sawed up and down as she reeled violently back and forth so hard that her head almost met her knees. The wood slipped from her hand and we all let out harsh gasps, clutching our ears as wood grated across the wood. A dull splash resounded as it dipped into the water like a gondolier's pole.

In a single swift movement Charlie kicked up her leg impossibly high and arched so far back I could practically hear the grinding of her vertebrae, and snatched the plank before it bobbed out of site. Her whole body seemed to shudder but the leg frozen at head height swung back down like a pendulum. Her body skewed violently and the planted foot gave way, and her body dropped.

The board crunched with splintering fibres but she sat with the plank straddled between her legs, safe, with a grimace of eye watering pain.

Although I felt relief that Charlie was alright, a greater wave washed over me when I saw the four metre plank was laid safely on her lap, one end dripping silvery drops _plish, plish, plish_ into the once again seamless water.

"Wahoe!" she breathed with tears still gathered in the corner of her eye. Carefully extracting herself she walked briskly back with a little less skip in her step.

Only a little.

"I think I'll lay the way, Lil' Tez. A bit to big for you're little arms!" After a bit of a shuffle, Charlie eased her way over the companion Pokemon and around me, then passed down the soggy pulpy board.

"Are you sure we should be investing our lives on this," I pestered peevishly as she tried to plug the furthest knob into the platforms donut hole. "Look, it ain't gonna work. Its that bloody fourteen fifteenths or what ever!"

"Sure it will," she chirped attempting to gain a bit more leeway. "Almost got it!"

I shook my head. There is a very well defined line between persistence and denial.

To my surprise it was Mave who got her to mosey on, complaining his tail hurt. Both of us could see the fresh spots appearing on the bandage and I had a feeling that Charlie gave up hers in favour of that damned brush.

"Its okay, we're almost there," she murmured. Stupid, stupid city kid! She caught my dirty look and winced. "I'll go first," she said standing up right. Placing her first foot down, she walked recklessly across without looking down, her head stiff on to of her neck trained on the nothing in front of her.

The plank rocked left and right unsteadily with each step as the far end balanced on the knob thing, scribbling on the platform with its wet butt. Oh gawd I've stood on tree branches as thick as two fingers safer then that, but Charlie fearlessly kept going, even as the long board dipped dangerously in the middle, she hitched in her breath and kept going. My lungs were going on strike just looking at it.

"Your turn," she laughed weakly as she got to the other side, a subtle sense of relief blooming on her pale cheeks.

I licked my lips. "Go Fury, be careful."

_"I will Topaz, jeeze you nag."_

My mother's voice spoke breathlessly in my head, right after one of our attempts to explore the pull of gravity from the Kath Kid's roof, and the words were on the tip of my tongue. _I nag because I care._ But my mouth stayed sealed, watching with stern, frozen features. She padded confidently out into what was practically thin air, nothing between my best mate and her death in the icy water but a flimsy peace of board. I closed my eyes, the rubbing sound of the knob like torture in my ears, and each creak of the board was followed by a phantom splash.

"_Easy peasy!"_ My heart almost collapsed with relief but I shunted away the urge to say something to give words to the feeling. I stared stonily at the board.

Mave followed, grinning foolishly with the tail of his white bandage fluttering after him and Charlie's sentret took a bit of coaching but he made it across too. I stayed immobile.

"What are you waiting for, Topaz?" Charlie asked with annoyance. I could hear the tick, tick, tick in her voice again. Time, time, time.

_"An invitation,"_ supplied Talon with a cackle, plonked down on the corner of the firm ground like a discarded feather duster. I shot him an icy glare but I was frozen.

"I," I started, but flapped my lips shut. _Don't be a bloody 'fraidyskitty! Do it!_

I obeyed the voice without question, stabbing my foot at the board and the other after it. It rocked suddenly and my arms flew ramrod straight to balance.

"Its okay," Charlie coaxed.

"I am okay," I snapped.

I took another defiant step forward feeling the knob twitch on the wood, but I couldn't see it clearly enough to see how close it was to the edge of the platform. The idea lent the scenario in my head of me being dragged under the water more credibility. I stayed there, waiting for my nerves to untangle.

"See, its okay. You're almost there, no need to be scared," she eased; her infuriating milky voice prodded a nerve.

"I'm not scared!" I shouted suddenly, raising my voice to the roof and to _prove_ just how at ease I was, I swivelled my hips make the board shudder violently under my feet.

_"Don't be stupid Topaz!" _Fury yelled fretfully.

Like an idiot I jerked my hips like a skateboarder just to prove I wasn't afraid, and the inevitable happened. The knob gave a sharp squeak, carving the smooth lacquer and jerked off the platform, and fell.

I screamed as the surface beneath my feet vanished and for an instant I felt like Wile E. Coyote after the cliff jag falls from under him. And like Wile E. I twisted back the way I'd come with my legs pedalling the air. Clutching furiously the end still imbedded in the pylon seesawed and plummeted in with slapping splash, a heavy spray of droplets spread like a beaded peacock's tail splattering my back and drenching my shorts.

My stomach crunched on the pylon and all the air went out of me like a bike tyre with a puncture, a long pained _psssstt._ I struggled, legs kicking to balance myself as everything wavered behind the gauzy film of tears sprung up at the corner of my eyes.

Huffing and puffing and dragging in laboured, hiccuping breaths, I dragged one knee up onto the pylon and hunkered over it, feeling like a mushroom cap on a stiff, unyielding stalk. After a moment bringing my panic back under the yoke, I became aware of the others shouting at me.

"Topaz, get up! You have to get up!"

"Duh you dumbarses!" I squalled back in one bursting gasp, crawling feebly onto the previous board. Still using one arm pushing against the pylon for balance, I used the other to mop up the wetness on my cheeks and push my fringe from my eyes. Then, to no one in particular I yelled out hoarsely, "I'm only fourteen, just bloody leave me alone!"

Thinking the outburst was directed at her Charlie snapped back, "No you're not! The moment you signed the contract to be an official trainer you were elevated to the status of an adult! That means all the rights, reasons and responsibilities that go with it."

"WHA!" I squealed trying unsuccessfully to see over my own stuck out arse.

"Didn't you read the contract?"

"Um…yes?" Oh come on! The whole bloody thing had been twelve pages long, both sides in a font that needed a microscope to be read! "Forget it."

With a tussle I eased myself into a position a little more comfortable, sitting on the pylon with my ankles hooked behind it and my nails scratching the surface for a bit extra stability. "Now what, oh mighty leader," I growled with my chin on my chest. My huge ponytail had flicked over my head and I didn't trust myself to let go. I couldn't see a damn thing.

"Well," she drawled, stalling for an idea to come, sounding anxious and frantic. Serves her right for making me look like an idiot! "Um, well! Oh I have it! What about that Ash and Friends Episode! He's with that Richie kid and they use their flying types to slow their momentum!"

"YOU'RE RISKING MY LIFE ON THE BASIS OF A DUMB CARTOON!"

"Why not, if you jump, all you need is just a little bit of extra momentum and," she snapped her fingers, "you're here!"

"I can't believe it," I moaned dolefully. "A) That is a cartoon. B) He had a Pidgeotto, which has a developed keel bone for muscle to attach to, therefore the bloody strength to do such a thing. C) The cartoon had a headwind…. Oh gawd what am I babbling about? What it comes down to is we have a fat-arse 14 year old, two pre-volved Pokemon and stale air! That won't work!"

"What it comes down to," she mimicked. "Is that so called 14 year old is shorter than my ten year old brother, two pre-evolved Pokemon who wouldn't be doing most of the work, you would as you jumped and-"

"_I could help,"_ Fury interrupted. Many pairs of eyes turned to the slouched and weary Pokemon curiously. _"Hot air rises, right? So if I aim my ember attack at the water, steam would rise and would help Talon and Javelin."_

The pidgey and the spearow exchanged circumspect glances, as if having a silent conversation, weighing up the possibilities.

"_It could work,_" Javelin finally said cautiously.

"There's no other way Topaz. Do it."

"You gotta be kidding me," I muttered, glaring through a thin slice free of hair. I studied everyone's face, one by one and without a word I grudgingly tried to stand on the small space provided by the pylon. Turning over with my bum up first, shuffling my feet onto the space trying to work out a balance between them, then grunting I stood upright with my arms out still wobbling like a blob of jelly. The two bird Pokemon fluttered up each grasping a chain attached to my gloves.

"_Ready."_

_"Me too."_

After offering a prayer to the deity that protected blue-haired midgets, I shambled backwards along the board for what was laughably called a run up, no more than two large steps. _Keep you're brain quiet, Tez, and no worries. Just don't let it think what will happen if you mis- crap._ I shoved that cheery little vision aside and waved to Fury on the other side signalling I was ready, forgetting Talon was perched on my wrist. I grinned sheepishly and but he only puffed out his feathers indignantly.

With arms out like a demented scarecrow I flung forward, my legs covering the two steps in less then I anticipated and with reckless abandon I hurtled up and out over the river. The moment my toes left the pylon I knew there was no way I could make it on my own. My whole body tried to stretch, to reach for the platform only just out of my grasp.

Then with swift yank gravity grabbed me. I screamed in fear, but then like a kid on the monkey bars, my faith was in Talon and Javelin and my arms were wrenched from their sockets.

Another agonised moan gripped me as mean as the fist of gravity as a thick spiralling coil of black and burning whiter sparks struck the water in a huge bubble of boiling air enveloped my body, but we were lifted, if only a little. I struggled and sobbed, huge red welts erupting up my legs like a chain of volcanic islands breaking the surface of the ocean. Any lift gained by the great mushrooms of steam spewing up from the surface was countered by my own throes.

My own feathered friends refused to give up as I dragged them down with me, their tiny, ill muscled wings hammering, their little tail feathers twitching and manipulating the plumes pummelling their weight, their whole bodies shaking with effort to get me to the other side, so close.

Lower and lower we jerked, and I knew as my eyes rolled, glimpsing the huge bubbling froths of the water that if I didn't make it, I would boil and cook like a krabby.

"Higher," I groaned as tears evaporated off my cheeks.

In answer the glowing coil, writhing and wriggling like it was alive thickened into a roiling twister of embers, dancing over the steaming surface and again the hot water surged upwards, and in one great boost we almost met the ceiling.

And then it was gone.

With a breathy _Laaav_ the light vanished like a crushed firefly in someone's palm and we were left in blind panic with monotones stamped inside our eyelids. A soft _thump_ was almost lost amongst the showering hisses twirling below but I heard it.

"Fur-!" I choked out but it was severed as my right buddy let go.

"_Talon!"_ Javelin snarled, as he strived to carry me alone.

"_My grip slipped!"_ he babbled, as his wings thrummed by my air, his little talons clutching sightlessly for a hold.

_"Forget it! Topaz SWING!"_

And I swung. I kicked out my legs as if I were on the playground swing, jerking them back and with a great _umph!_ as I reached the zenith of the oscillation, Javelin's claws released me and I flew out and away. My arms thrashed out to grip anything in the lightless oblivion as I fell with the speed of a plummeting Onix. Splinters grazed my fingers, and it was gone.

I was dead.

"I have YOU!" Charlie's hysterical bawling clashed against my ears as her cheek brushed mine and two hands seized my wrist, strangling it with an audible crunch.

Shoulders jerked, and I swung limply, wheezing as my ribs constricted my air. Charlie, breathing just as hard as she knelt, bent like an aged willow and hauled me up, hugging each other for a moment before I flopped onto the wood. More blistered burst and oozed but I was beyond it, simply lying and quivering, staring blankly.

Finally, after what felt like eons I pushed my face off the wood, feeling the condensation of the steam drift down, making us cold and damp. I squinted hard and for the longest time still couldn't see anything. But eventually I could see the dimmest of outlines, two tiny little bundles, heaving heavily, two sentrets, one poised on the tip of its tail, the other comforting Charlie's hunched figure with little spines that were probably the female Nidoran.

And then a lump, a perfectly still, silent lump.

"Fury!" I croaked, scuttling over to her. My hand went to her neck, feeling slightly below her ear where the carotid artery laid over one of the vertebrae. A pulse. Oh gawd it was a pulse! Not dead, fainted.

With a soft whimper, I lifted her into my lap, stroking her clammy fur feverishly and resting my face on her back, as if that alone could make her conscious again.

So there we huddled for the night, cold, starving, lightless, without my best friend to keep my spirits up.

And we had yet to even accomplish the first level. 


	5. WoC4b

Hello my readers of Although you rarely get thanked for all the praise and help you give me, I don't take the time to thank you. You are a huge part of why I write, although I realize my little time, if any, in the spotlight is over. Who cares! Write for the love of writing I always say, and I do love writing, although my god the ended of this dragged out. I swear to god I have nothing to do with the end. It is a long chapter, so maybe you're better of saving it and reading offline, or pitching over to my site at to see the illustrated version.  
Also on that site I'm trying to get more privately owned websites dedicated to a single author or fanfiction on the net so if you pop on in to read the conditions, I will make you a site like Feathers_ that is easy to work._  
_Last but not least, the personal thankyous_

**BluebanglesYRP:** Thankyou very much Bluebangles, its amazing to have you back and with such detailed reviews! So much praise, is it any wonder my head is bloated? The _little old lady_ song is a book I remember from when I was young and I love repetitive songs and nursery rhymes. Maybe Topaz will get to the end. I hope you enjoy this chapter too!

**General Failure: **Thankyou again for tuning in General Failure, you too are one of those lovely people who give me really detailed reviews that push me into writing another chapter! And if you think reading it is repetitive, try writing it. Next chapter will involve mirrors and ghastly so I hope that will be a change of scenery. There is going to be romance, but that's not for a long way off until I get my bearings on it. cringes My last attempt was a disaster so I'm really going to try this time. Who with, whose to say? chuckles evilly

**Miroku004:** Oh, Miroku, you got rid of your fiction! There will be another one, right nudge nudge. Don't be discouraged by a first attempt, mine was horrendous, which can be laughed at at Feathers. I promise I'll give all the help you need!

**The Mad Tortoise:** Oh, the minute I upload this I'm jumping on your fiction like it was a mouse, and I like chasing mice feral grin PEOPLE! If you want a goddess of writing, look no further. I'm astonished that this girl, who began reading the first version of WoC didn't throw away her pen in fear! I'll work on Charlie, see if we can get her into the iridescent trainer of the last time round. One thing I am proud of in this chapter is that the Pokemon's personalities are really coming along. I'm really seeing them as other people this time!

**Facia:** I'm saving copies of your chapters this instant so I can read on my laptop once I'm done. Then I can enjoy it as slowly as I want! You're idea already interests me and it seems a new spin on the journey fiction!

**Dilasc:** Ahh, Dilasc, you don't know what your missing! Although that could be a good thing quirky eyebrow Although irritating, rewriting is really putting depth into my characters that would be required for later chapters.

**tjal: **Thankyou very much, hopefully I'll see you back soon!

**RaNdOm TeXt: **Thankyou random text for the praise, hopefully you'll enjoy this one as much as the other

Well, that's about it? As I said, I _want_ to give you a website so you can fill it with bios and fanart and soundtracks and anything else your heart desires, I don't care if you like WOC or not, I don't care if its not an OT! I want to get you out into the world!

**_On the Wings of Council_**

**Chapter4b**

Oh gawd it hurt. My head felt heavy and foggy, all thoughts drowned in the soupy snippits of yesterday zipping about like swallows under a bridge. In fact their wings chafed my brain and were hammering their beaks against the temple looking for a way out. I moaned, unfurling my body from its hunched little foetal position on the floor, still slightly moist from collapsing in a dead faint. All over my muscles had cued up to protest, cramped and aching after cooling so quickly.

Like a burst of precognition I knew in a day or two I'd be having heavy, throaty coughing fits and a runny nose.

Swallowing hard, my drooping hand found my canteen, still pretty full. I was a girl forged by long car trips and remote camping areas with 'untouched crystal clear billabongs just like bottled water!' I don't know about you, but I've never seen bottled water with mozzie nymph's practically water skiing across it. Blindly turning the cap I tipped it to my mouth, slowly letting the first mouthful swirl around my mouth, washing away that icky aftertaste that had accumulated a small mountain. Swigging down more noisy gulps I forced myself to stop.

"Fury?" I whispered shakily, offering my cupped hand out to the darkness.

No answer. Finally I opened my eyes. They stuck, gummed by last night's frustrated heaves of pain and despair.

Reaching out a tentative finger to where my legs supposedly were I barely brushed it and the cramps and aches were replaced with fire and brimstone. The nerve endings were so sensitive I could barely stretch them out but the pain was fading, most I think due to blood backed up from bad sleeping position. Hmm, having your legs looking like popped egg yolk really wasn't something I wanted to dwell on.

Feeling my way around, my fingers finally met with the scruffy fur of a Quilava. Easing closer my fingers ran down her back in brisk strokes, partly to try and wake her up, partly as an anxious reaction. Simply the feel of her close made me feel better.

"Come on you lump, time to get up," I tried again louder, my voice sounding harsh, abrasive and still slightly nasal from the swelling in the echoing hallway. Suddenly my hand halted midstroke. The realisation she had fainted once again sunk in, and sunk my heart to my feet. Instead I lifted her dead weight onto my lap of my denim shorts.

A little way off came the muffled sound of a dust brush on wood and my head jerked towards it in alarm. My senses seemed to be jumping out of their sockets for any hint of danger now that my second pair of ears was gone.

My eyes were slowly adjusting again and I could just about make out an outline, or the twin outlines of the sentrets twined together for warmth. I thought I could see Talon, little more than a blot on that bloody pylon, the glint of misty beads clinging to his feathers and Javelin the spearow on another. Another noise drew my attention, but more reflective because as bizarre as it was I had a feeling it wasn't going to be out of the ordinary in my new life on the road, a voice like the sound of Donald Duck with a head cold.

"_Fireworks…Nwoiiiiir! Prattle flute teddy…..Nwoir! Huston we have a problem….Nwoir!_

I stared at him groggily. "Riiiiight."

The totodile had somehow waddled in his sleep to land flat out on his stomach with his snout squashed like an accordion and a squishy pinkish petal squeezed between two teeth. His tail wagged back and forth like a tattered surrender flag and it was all topped with an expression of enlightenment… or perhaps just the expression that comes with the saying 'ignorance is bliss.'

I craned my neck and squinted harder into the unyielding dark. With gummy eyes narrowed I willed it to part like the red sea, offering a welcoming lantern glow at the end of the corridor and the invitation of a mug of coffee and some bickies by a little monk saying it was all a joke played on newbie trainers.

I waited but unfortunately no opportunity presented itself. I sighed. It was also in this black glare I realised my new partner in crime was not in attendance, and after a longer pause so was her rodent Pokémon.

_Nina,_ I thought muzzily.

"_Nwoiiir Hairy oven tacklebox……..Nwoir! Is my shirt too bright?... Nwoir! Fuzzle cheese poof…..Nwoir!"_

Again, that almost traitorous thought wriggled up from my subconscious.

He could have almost been mine. My eyes strayed to the dusky coloured lump, to Maverick the living bagpipes and twice as noisy. What if Tobias hadn't patronised Fury? I almost certainly wouldn't have felt the obligation to take her. I had my choice Charmander, or Mareep, or Mave. In face, almost certainly if Charlie hadn't I would have snapped him up in a second. Being from a place where drought was almost normal a water Pokémon had more than enough appeal, whether I continued my journey or not. What practicality did a fire type have other than a safer alternative to light a bonfire to my father?

She was hardly what I had expected in a companion Pokémon. But then again, what had I expected? For the past four years I had browsed the Pokénet, a world wide forum for trainers and those who wanted to be. Hundreds upon thousands had posted journals. A multitude had been late and given alternative staters as if to mimic the 'great' Ash Ketchum, from growlithe to eevee and to my disbelief dratini! Few recorded any personality to speak of. The bulbasaur in question's only duty it seemed was to nip at their heels or give a reassuring _saur_ when required.

Fury! She had an opinion about everything! Or a complaint, or a dumb joke about it.

I looked at Maverick. Okay, he probably had an opinion on everything too, but his were about their multitude of tastes, ranging all along the spectrum from _ cwunchy_ to _icky!_

I sighed so heavily it could have anchored a ship as footsteps approached.

"Ay," I nodded to the darkness. The vaguest of outlines nodded back, with a little blob making soft chittering, nosing the air.

"Good morning," Charlie greeted, sounding both tired and cheerful at the same time, and then added gently, "Is she still Fainted?"

I winced. "Yeah," I snapped moodily before I could stop myself.

Charlie offered a sympathetic smile, sinking down beside me and gathered Maverick between her feet.

"_NwooooirYou wanna piece of me? Noi- whuh?" _His snout slithered up her knee, his cloudy red eyes blinking as if stepping into bright light lifting away the sleepy glaze. Watching the two as Charlie took the tail of his bandage dangling it in front of his face, I felt the guilt pangs keenly. Irritating she could be, but I couldn't question her loyalty. She had spoke of it sitting around the campfire with such reverence I could almost picture it like a physical blow.

Maverick swiped at the bandage with a toothy grin as Charlie eyed me thoughtfully in the gloom.

"Today isn't going to be any easier, I'm afraid," she admitted almost apologetically, "but if we can follow the banisters like yesterday, we can do it. I'm almost sure we were _meant_ to cross the pylons, like a halfway marker or somethi-" Suddenly another voice spoke up, deep, rumbling and demanding. I looked at assumingly where her tummy was. Both our faces faulted and my own rallied in agreement, gurgling so loudly Maverick looked over with momentary interest before trying to snap at the bandage again with his teeth.

"This is getting us nowhere," I said quietly, staring at Fury with embarrassment, stroking her ears absently. "Gawd, I'm going to have to carry her, aren't I?"

I switched on the ultimate weapon of small people everywhere, a 100 watt beam and eyes as big as saucers, blinking pathetically. Unfortunately, the Adorable Stare of Doom was completely ineffectual where you can't see a foot in front of you. However, true to its name Charlie seemed to sense it.

"No," she said, and I detected a hint of discomfort. "But I do have something that will help."

There was a ruffle of material ridiculously amplified as she fossicked around her pockets and after a moment a milky white hand appeared under my nose. Pushing it away slightly, I noticed a faint gleam. A narrow, plastic box with a cork stopper with some inky blobs inside.

"What is it?" I took it between my thumb and fore finger with suspicion, holding it up to my eyes. My fumbling fingers worked the cork and I was slapped by a sharp, vinegary tang. I gagged, shooting it away from my body and smothered my nose into my shoulder. Involuntary my mind was filled with the images of the silage silos back home, wondering why that made it so familiar.

"Jeeze! Trying to knock me unconscious or something!" I woofed.

"Hadiha," her voice said with faint sarcasm. "They're for Fury."

"Fury's already unconscious."

"You're impossible, they're Berries."

Detecting the capitalization I carefully brought them back to my face. "You mean like Berries, Berries?" I tipped them onto the palm of my hand, four bluish green blots, and picked one up, rolling it between my fingers. "It's soft, and squishy, and I don't think they're meant to be that colour. What tree did you find them on? I don't remember seeing any."

I could feel the smugness of a bargain hunter rolling off her in waves. "Did you see that house on the fork? There was this guy practically giving them away!"

Oh yes, I remembered him, on the way to Mr Pokemon's, a scrawny, shrunken old dolt with a roosters wattle had tried to push his dodgy merchandise all at a low low price! "You actually bought some?"

"They were a bargain!" she retorted defensively. "And you should be thanking me, they'll wake Fury up and we'll find the staircase in no time!"

I stared at them sitting on my palm, the razor reek of them suffusing the moist air. "I don't really have a choice," I sighed.

"Excellent!" she chirped. "See, all you need to do is trust people, Topaz. That's your problem-"

"I don't care," I snapped, carefully lifting Fury free of my legs and placing her dubiously in Charlies lap. "Just don't let her choke or I'll choke you."

"Its okay, I volunteered down at the Goldenrod PokeCentre, I gave Pokemon their meds all the time!"

"Is there anything you don't do, Mother Teresa?" I squinted with fascination as she tenderly pushed the squishy blob to the back of the throat. I could see the throat reflexes trying to gag it back up either because of its size or its taste but she encouraged the swallowing reflex by stroking it down with her finger down her furry neck.

I stared anxiously, waiting for her to sit up, hack up a coughball and complain. Inky juice dribbled and stained her pale chin as the tense minutes wore on, dragging on every nerve. Without warning her chest hitched with a sick, phlegmy cough before settling it a deeper more regular breathing pattern. Every one of my crowded, beady features sagged and then stretched into an enormous grin. Relief didn't even begin to describe the emotion. Rendering your first Pokemon on the threshold of death has got to leave a black mark somewhere.

The expression lingered for a few seconds but Fury still lolled bonelessly across Charlie's leg.

_"Is see gowna wake up?"_ Mave gurgled, tugging on her paw looking, a pale mourner at a deathbed by candle light. "_More!"_

Charlie shrugged and tried two more Berries, now with a livelier attempt to regurgitate them. Suddenly she jerked, limbs jolted and her face screwed into such a rictus of revolution it was painful!

"Fury!" I cried, petting her head vigorously that pulled her skin back from her skull.

_FWOOSH!_

A jet of flame tore up from her crest and her back spluttered like pyrotechnics out of control!

"Geyah!" We shot to our feet dumping Fury onto the floor screaming wildly, trying to beat out the flames that scotched our clothing looking like mad German slap dances. "Yeaaah! Geeeeohhhaaa! EEEEEYAAAH!"

I whirled away from Charlie, the flames wreathing and streaming out behind me! Back! I threw myself backwards as my foot kicked out into the air above the river. It _glowed_! A glittering blanket of molten gold and the temptation to leap into it was quickly quenched.

"_What's happe- GEYAH!" _The feathery body of Talon rocketed off his pylon, feathers loosed quickly caught a flame, zigging and zagging and hissing as they hit the water but other more were caught in the whirlwind updrafts of hammering wings and thrashing arms.

"_TOOOOOOTOH!"_The frigid water hit Charlie and I, freezing the screams in out throats and smashing us into the wall.

I collapsed groaning onto the floor dripping and shivering, and then Charlie flopped on top of me.

"Dear gawd! Lemme out!"

"Hey! I am _not_ that fat… am I?" As I tried to claw myself out from under Charlie, unconcerned with whatever third degree burns she may have sustained, pinched her tummy with a whimper.

"_Mwaoh."_

Our yammering ceased in midsentence, sharing a quick _that-wasn't-me _ glance and followed each others to the lump, shivering and moaning, lurching shakily to her feet like a bald rattata in the snow with parkinson's disease.

"_What happened?"_ she slurred. Her eyes shone with an unhealthy gleam, red rimmed with almost no iris. "_Wh-wheeram I? I.. OH MY G-WAWD! The wh-wall-es ah cah-rawling"_

The Pokemon screeched, scrambling to her feet but each foot decided to _ escape_ in a different direction, twisting and fumbling under the other in a loping shuffle that made your eyes hurt, like an octopus with a limp. One quaking paw crumpled and her shaggy momentum made a complicated aerial assault and flipped her onto her chest. She watched the floor with unspeakable horror, whimpering and hiding her eyes behind her splayed paws.

I too watched, that indescribably recognition demanding to be listened to, despite the crisis at hand. It was right at the back of my brain, just out of reach and that alone meant it was desperately important, if I could just remember why it was familiar I could figure out what those berries had done to Fur…

"Oh no," I croaked. It clicked into place, her rheumy eyes, her slurred words and lack of coordination, the sharp stench of silage. "Oh my gawd Charlie! You got Fury drunk!"

"I DID WHAT!"

"The Berries! They were fermenting!" We gawped at her trying to figure out just what kind of monster we'd created. She lay on her side trying to gnaw at the woodwork with her yellowy canines, muttering gutturally and a pleased expression like a prince dining on fine delicacies. As she noticed we were staring she looked up with a toothy grin, splinters poking out between them. "Oh man, just what we need! Another Mave!"

"What'dya mean!" said Charlie and Mave in whiplash unison, eyes narrowed.

"I, um, er…Oh Fury!" I squeezed hurriedly under her legs, squatting beside Fury. My eyebrows shot up. Glancing down each way of the corridor I could see it bathed in a warm, cheery yellow glow, all the odd little shadows thrown by gnawed spars and worn plaster had been frightened away. But Fury had no flame, or none that I could see, only the slightest ripple, like distorted air or a trick where it was supposed to be. I had heard from the older Chem students back home that some atoms burnt invisibly, could alcohol be one of them? I was a bio student, I never touched chem with a tenfoot pole, but even so I was sure that if it burnt invisibly, it shouldn't light up anything.

Fury looked up at me with an ecstatic grin, her butt wagging as if there should have been a tail on the end. "_Hi!"_

"Uh, Fury?" I tried a hearty smile, but I felt like a 12 year old with botox injections. It didn't matter, the sloppy smile didn't even falter. Drawing on the experience of endless Metone Christmas get togethers, family barbeques and anything else that happened to involve my uncles on my mother's side, I hoped she knew who I was. "You know I'm your trainer, don't you?"

_"How do I know y-your me-ma-my trainer? And you ain't just sayin'it?"_ She preened, she was a Sherlock Holmes in the making.

Complicated logic just didn't work on a drunk.

Logical logic didn't even work on a drunk.

"Because my hair's blue."

_"Looks awfully black to me."_

"No it doesn't."

Her brow folded together, two tectonic plates preparing to collide and at almost the same speed. Without a word she sat up, nodding sagely. Made sense. "_Lesgo."_

I followed her wobbly advance, and then said to Charlie, "We could really do with some of my Uncle Lyle's coffee."

Metonia wasn't the epicentre of Pokemon Masters so were known for far more notorious reasons if at all. In any other region in the world my Uncle would have been considered a raging alcoholic with all the restraint of a deranged camel, but was merely 'a festive drinker' back home. It needn't be said that he considered everyday 'a holy gift from the wassanames above, uh, yeah… whose round is it?'

While evolving a stomach lining that could probably eat away an apartment complex in a matter of hours, other methods had to be devised to cope with the morning after, and most the time staying drunk was not an option. Thus, the famous Metone Coffee had been brewed in, accordance to tradition, someone's shonky back shed when all other conventional ingredients for moonshine had run out.

It didn't just sober you up, it took you past sober and right out the other side. Any tourist ordering it in some quaint café on the coast was likely to have an enlightening and intimate conversation with a god of their choice.

Charlie the cosmopolitan who had probably sat in such sassy coffee shops stared at me shocked. "You'd do that to your Pokemon!"

_"Oh dere wassa old man cawled Michael chinigen_

_He grew a whiskash on hish innigen_

_Wind camup and blew dem Finnigen_

_Poor old Micheal Finnigen, Begin again!"_

_"Stop! Three hours! Please make them stop!"_

I heard this last muffled remark through cupped ears and a grimace like cracked, sunbaked soil. Talon, perched on my elbow, consoled himself by banging his head against my water canteen in hopes of becoming unconscious. Javelin, focusing a military grade laser glare, rode on Charlie's sentret's tail while Target lurched beside me with his tail in one ear and paw clamped over the other, an expression carefully blank. I had the feeling that behind that cute furry face was the word _payback_ branded in bright red letters.

The last three members of our party skipped, or weaved, in the lead, singing brightly and out of tune, but of course accuracy wasn't really of any concern to a drunk, or to Charlie or Mave for that matter, singing up and down the tune but never actually hitting a correct note. The only good part was that they triggered the traps, and thus made better time. Charlie only had to unwedge her foot from the trap door or unhook it from the wire, I had to escape, curse, swear, cuss and complain of the injustice of it all.

However, time just seemed to ooze by, like water through a Celadon sewer pipe, if it happened to be filled with verse after verse of Knick knack Paddy-wack or Michael Finnigen.

"All of you just _shutup!"_ The other members of the party rejoined like the cannons of a battlefield, and then we all threw ourselves to the ground as the sonic boom cannoned around the tight, stale aired, roof with enough force to bludgeon an ursaring into submission.

My eyes nailed shut squeezed tears at the corners as my nose was wallpapered to my face, tiny splinters sticking out at odd angles from my cheeks as if I'd suddenly decided to swallow an echidna from where I'd skidded across the wooden planks, dry and knotted, much like my stomach.

Slowly I climbed to my feet, the skin raked up like fish scales over my knees also bearing an array of wooden quills.

_Okay,_ _just _chill. _Take it _easy_. No worries eh?_

That shrivelled wise old that had devised magical mantra of the Metonian had never encountered me. If he ever did he'd chuck whatever holy book he'd been scribbling in for the past millennia and get with reality.

"YOU STUPID- I- YOU- IF THERE WEREN'T WITNESSES YOU'D- NEEEEYARG!" My nails raked down my face in frustration. "THIS IS NOT _FAIR!_"

Charlie found herself backed against the wall, not because she was intimidated or anything, but if I kept creeping closer I'd have nowhere to go but vertical.

"You know Topaz," she began thoughtfully, "there's a few of those berries left. Just look how cheerful Fury is-"

"Neoh." That single, venomous word cut short everything else. "And as for you-" My glare, prepared to crash down on Fury like a bucket of cold water and chill her into sobriety just fell short of what I had intended.

Her ears perked sitting with a sloppy grin and bleary eyes.

_"Yew love me,_ _admit it. Yanno ya do,"_ she purred contently, weaving between my legs and rubbing her neck against my ankle.

Anger melted away leaving that hollow empty feeling and my balled fist flopped to my sides.

"That's not fair," I whined. "That's playing dirty."

"_Quirrrrrrr."_

_"Ladies and gentlepoke's, don't mean to break up your little lovey dovey moment, but I think we've got a something to think about."_

Javelin mooched on a corner, head cocked and a predatory grin. Mind you he couldn't change it but it probably had a nifty affect on his prey if he got them into a corner. What he was staring at had an equally nifty affect on me, the kind that made me want to scramble backwards and yearned to be anywhere but there.

"Damnit."

Inching towards it like a slow kind of magnetism I knew I shouldn't have wasted that energy on anger. I should have conserved it to spend on misery.

The cool wash of air once again alerted us that the floor had again opened up but not to the completeness of the gulf we'd faced the day before. Instead it was like two rectangles had been neatly sawed away and framed against each wall, no more than a metre or so long and a couple of handspans across, giving the dank and oppressive tunnel a kind of aesthetic pleasure. On one side dug into the wall was a sort of window box, without the window and overlayed with more wood, only with deeply shadowed termite squiggles etched into it and down the corridor were soot dusted sconces, five on each side, all unlit.

_It's all probably some elaborate reminder that yes, somewhere far above there was human civilization, _I thought dourly, my fingers running over the scrolled wood absently. Moss clung to some of the rises and an orange fan of fungus had sprouted against one side. The cool of the slowly moving water emanated from below and its thick, mineral smell had been soaked up by the timber struts.

Charlie presently hunkered down over the other gap, trying industriously to refill her canteen. Quick thinking, medically inclined and fashion savvy she may have been, camping material she was not. She drank almost non-stop and listened to her city-kid urges to wash away the oily glaze of sweat that coated our skin as we had moved away from the water and back into the dry musty passages. I had endeavoured to preserve my tenuous supply, knowing that a magical water fountain with cherubs and gently splashing plumes was unlikely to appear at just the right moment. Charlie didn't like that.

What I had known would happen but resisted anyway was Fury.

Oh yes, as a biology student and an experienced Soarhire family member, I knew what alcohol not only did to the bladder but the brain. Chemicals released, urge to flush out the toxins, need to empty little stretchy bag. No amount of 'Ewww gross' could keep her from obeying whatever innate instincts come to quilavas in the wild. I also tried to water down whatever natural cocktail had come out of the fermented berries but it looked like it was all or nothing and would have to be slept off with a perfectly good meal tasted twice.

After a struggle and a grunt, Charlie's sentret was lowered towards the underground tributary by his tail and a pear shaped canteen clamped between its paws. A disembodied voice floated up peevishly that she should be holding tight, but not too tight. Charlie nodded with a vapid, 'life time guarantee!' smile worn by all second hand car salesmen you wouldn't trust as far the low milometer reading on their shoddy merchandise. After another squeeze and a slosh of water the Pokemon nervously emerged presenting the bottle like a sacrifice to an altar.

She offered cupped handfuls to her Pokemon, drinking their fill before slugging down half and using more to dribble over her dusty arms.

I eyed Target critically, lying sprawled on his back and his round ringed tummy bobbing up and down indicating just why we wouldn't be able to duplicate the act.

I unslung my own canteen, jangling it at the end of its black cord pensively. Almost half empty. Rolling my tongue along my teeth I figured I was alright and my Pokemon chorused back they were pretty good. Fury was too busy glaring at the fungus as if it had personally insulted her. And the gnawing squiggle wood. And insisting that the wall had bumped into her on purpose, challenging her erratically reeling shadow to a battle.

"_Puddup your ducks!"_

_"Dukes."_

She turned a poached egg eye onto Talon grinning beakily. "_Wha."_

"_Dukes, you say put up your dukes."_

Fury digested this. _"No, ducks are easier."_

I kept a lazy eye on Fury, noting that the brash yellow light filling every nook within a 4 metre radius was dimming and slow, translucent colour was melting back into her crest.

"So, what do you think this is for?" Charlie shuffled in beside me, peering in at the windowbox.

I kept my first opinion to myself. "Just a rest area."

"It is very pretty," said Charlie, agreeing with whatever tone she thought she heard. Her fingers traced the squiggles of the board absently like reading brail. I turned just in time to catch the O forming on her lips, leaning over running over the top edge. "There's letters, words!"

"Really? What?" I asked. Did I really want to know? I knew I didn't, but curiosity killed the cat and satisfaction brought him back.

This brought on the vision of me pulling a button that explicitly said, in bright red letters hanging beneath a skull and cross bones DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, NOT EVEN IF YOU ACCIDENTLY TRIP AND YOUR ELBOW SORT OF MUSHES IT IN, NOT EVEN IF THERE IS A REALLY BIG GUST OF WIND THAT JUST _HAPPENED_ TO BLOW IT IN, NOT EVEN IF THE LATI SIBLINGS MAGICALLY APPEAR AND PRESS IT IN WHILE YOU WEREN'T LOOKING, NOT EVEN IF MEWTWO HIMSELF THREATENS YOU, _PUSH THIS BUTTON!_

It's not like I had a good track record with these kinds of things.

"'To make the way its best and brightest, you must send your least and lightest!'"

"You mean there's an exclamation mark?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Cos if there's an exclamation mark, there's no telling what trouble we'll be getting into!"

"You're overeacti-"

"Nothing good has ever come after an exclamation mark!"

"Now you're just being sil-"

"I bet the Morse Code sent to the St Titania ended with an exclamation mark!"

"Topa-"

"You just know the last hieroglyph read by the fella who opened Tutankhamahun tomb was actually an exclamation mark!"

"_Hey, dere's a door."_

"And there don't even think I've forgotten all those menus with little foreign names with an exclamation at the end! I was just asking for trouble!"

_"Benef vis lil, lil- this smawl flap!" _I felt a shuffle beside my legs but I had sunk my teeth into something and wasn't letting go. "_I reckon I can fit."_

_"_And then-"

_Fwoom_

The corridor lit up, pools of gold illuminating the area around the sconces.

_"Help. I'm stuck. I-I'm stuck. I can't get- I'm stuck."_

I blinked miserably trying to regain my vision, spots streaking back and forth. Nails scratched on wood from beneath the window box as Fury continued to stammer drunkenly and I sat down to steady myself. I can't say I was surprised to see Fury's violet butt wriggling at me trying to squeeze through a small door like a dog flap camouflaged with the stone and wood.

"Fury's found some kind of door," I told Charlie leaning over carved board rubbing her eyelids. "Small too."

"_Hey, there's something in here! It's moving!" _Muffled crunches floated up. "_Mmm, munchy!"_

My mouth fell open as _what_ she had eaten suddenly occurred to me. Yeah, I knew quilava mostly insectivores, but the idea of a fat scurrying cockroach couldn't escape my imaginative mind.

"To make the way its best and brightest," she mused, slowly squatting beside me. "Well, what do we do with it?"

"Only one way to find out." Fury was tugged out like a cork from a stubborn wine bottle and the wood panel fell back into place, hinges a little squeaky. They too had been made to blend in. As I staggered back with Fury bent over beneath the armpits I bumped the board and it clattered to the floor, out of reach of even Charlie's quick reflexes. She paused over it, blinking in the light, then snatched it up triumphantly and read.

" 'Congratulations! You are obviously an observant trainer for few see other than what is directly in front of them. See beyond the realm of the certain and look for the possible. The first torch has enough powder to burn for ten minutes, the second torch has enough powder to burn for nine minutes, and so on respectively so this fleeting light will last for ten minutes. You will have also noticed the trap door, and on the other side is a labyrinth that is a replica of the one you now stand in, which is also engraved in the table which you hold, save for one small difference. At the end you will be rewarded with a torch, and if you are swift in foot and tongue, you may be in time to retrieve flame from the torches remaining alight, good luck for time flies!"

We gasped in unison.

"Small! Let's see," Charlie cried, snapping to action. "Nina!"

"Nina?" I screeched! "She couldn't find her way out of a paper bag!"

Suddenly two wings cuffed me on either side of the ear with a sharp rasping. _"Keep you're mouth shut!"_ hissed Talon. _"She's the smallest and the fastest and if you keep it up she'll be too knotted up to do anything. No time to argue!"_

A split second later the first torch spluttered and died. Nine minutes left.

"Right, sorry Nina," I apologised meekly, rubbing my ear. "Just a little worked up, heh heh?"

"_Is alwight Topaz," Nina_ mumbled from behind Charlie's ankle, her translator choosing the voice of a shy five year old girl with a lisp. "_I do it."_

"You're a champ Nina!" beamed her trainer, putting the board on the floor between me and her with ample light to make the termite paths visible. Also beaming drunkenly, Fury swept open the trap door with an exaggerated bow._ "Time to scoot!"_

Nina's ears flicked with a nervous smile as Fury helped the female Nidoran over the gap in the floor, and she was gone, the flap snapping down behind her.

_"Charlie!"_Her panicky voice seemed to fill the air around us.

"I can hear you, Nina. Can you hear us?"

"_Yahhuh."_

"We're in business. How were you at mazes when you were, lit-" Charlie checked herself mid-sentence. "I mean were you any good at mazes?"

"Yeah, loved em. Mum and dad gave me and Scotty puzzle books to keep us from whinging on long drives. What we need is a marker."

"I have lipgloss, it's sparkly so it should be visible in the light."

"I'm not even going to ask, give it here."

I quickly marked the exit and entrance, but which was which? It didn't matter. What people didn't realise that when doing those mazes, no matter how simple- or complicated as this one was, there was a trick that no one seemed to pick up. They always focused on one path at once, just drawing a line until they came to a Rockitile with snapping jaws or a dead end, and then just erase it and go back to the nearest choice. The trick was to get your eyes to unfocus, to see more then one path at once so you don't bother with it. Letting my eyes adjust and pick out the contrasts of the board, I noted the dead ends drew the line around them keeping an eye on the next three choices and their resolutions, all the while still muttering. "When we meet the boss of this place he's going to need a broom to clean out his ears by the time I'm done with 'im!"

With the tip of the gloss stick on the home straight, another torch evaporated, hissing and guttering before vanishing. Eight minutes left.

"Got it! Now we gotta figure which way is up. You alright Nina?

"_Yes," answered_ the quavering but determined voice of a rodent.

"Move forward until you find the next turn off and say what side you're on," I tried to say as loudly and clearly as I dared, but the echoing of the room distorted it. Nether less Nina seemed to understand and a few moments later she squeaked, _"Left! It's a left."_

Spinning the board around to different angles but neither entrance nor exit turned left on the first go.

"Wait a minute," said Charlie, "It said there was a difference, what if this board is actually a mirror image?"

"We don't have time to remember that!" I protested, slamming my open palm down.

"'No worries, isn't that what you say? I've got a mirror."

"You've go- I'm going to give you a good ear bashing after this on what people mean when they say essential Charlie but until then, just move it!" I pushed the board over with a flustered bounce as another torch fluttered out. Seven minutes. Out of her pocket came a fairly large compact with some kind of powder makeup inside out of my knowledge but she held it up with brows furrowed in concentration.

"Alright," ordered Charlie, cleverly pitching her voice so that the echo was like a grumbled instead of the ear shattering bounces I made. "What's the next turn?"

"_A T-Junction!"_

"Got it! Turn right!"

Suddenly the orders flew on thick and fast, Charlie rapping out orders while the mumble of Nina's counting filtered through the wood and steadied with a firm '_Right_!' for the next order to be fired back ready and waiting. Sometimes this machinegun barrage would be tripped as Nina would miss a turn in her haste and be forced to backtrack, each time I'd suck in a sharp breath and look towards the torches, quivering in their brackets.

I pace back and forth with such fretful intensity that I kept calling worried glances from Charlie. It was a horrible habit my mother constantly tried to wean me off. Often when I was left to wait I would walk in aimless circles or lengths, mumbling the steps inside my head but when I became agitated it was like listening to a train click over tracks with each quick and heavy footfall.

Something though something hit me in midstep. "Wait! Nina watch out! That one's like this one so it would have trap doors too!"

_"I know," _she said with composed confidence. Well didn't my words boomerang and hit me square! I looked on the rodent Pokemon with new respect and promised not to underestimate any Pokemon.

_Fwoot_

The fifth torch died reluctantly, hissing and spitting the last of its powder sending the golden halo around it throwing deep and dreary shadows over Charlie's board.

"Five minutes," I said quietly, trying to impress as much gravity as I could on those two words. She lifted her eyes from the board with a faint smile and raking her hair back.

"Take the third left and you're there."

We that were sober listened with baited breath. Claws scratched on wood and then _"I'm here!" _chirped ecstatically through the panelling.

"What did you find?" Charlie called with pride, shooting me a smug look. My jaw dropped indignantly.

_"It's a horn, or a _tor-chah," she pronounced the word foreign to a wild Pokemon.

"Do you remember the way Nina?" Charlie ventured, but was already placing the board back on the box. Nina agreed hesitantly she did and the sound of hasty scraping echoed down the hollow. One more torch extinguished, and we weren't too worried, but when a second extinguished, the Pokemon and I urged her on with pinched impatience, eyes drawn to the diminished light upheld by just three torches. Three minutes left!

"_Come'n Nina!"_ Javelin the Spearow impelled in his harsh squawk. What was meant to be encouragement came out as a threat from one of Nidoran's main predator.

_"I'm trying!"_ she squealed! _"It's stuck on a corner!"_ Jerks and crumbling plaster gave way before her scared squeaks rose. _"Help me! I can't get it undone! HELP ME!"_

"Calm down Nina," soothed her trainer, leaning against the wall with frowning at the wall opposite on her hands. "Take the time."

"Take ti-" she cut my horrified bark clean off with a glance.

"You don't get anywhere by panicking. Look at Topaz," she said with suppressed smile and chuckles from Talon and the Sentrets.

"I resent that," I growled but I didn't mind half as much as I heard a clunk and a happy peep.

_Fwoot_

"Two minutes!" I hissed, whirling on the still smoking empty sconce. "Run Nina! Run!"

"NO!" Charlie snapped but it was too late. Frantic scampering nails and clonking of the horn as it bounced and choked around each corner. The bangs grew closer and more often. Clunks and crunches echoed around my room sending my heart into a gallop as the second last torch vanished in a helix of smoke, curling in the glow of the final guttering torch's feeble glow!

_"I'm back! I'm back!"_ The trap door exploded open with a crash of rusting hinges. Too fast! Too excited to remember the gap in the floor leading to the inky mineral rich river below, her paws met with naught!

The torch flew from her teeth with a deafening screech used in battle to stun an opponent and the effect on the human ear was spectacular! Charlie and I were crippled as babes, throwing our bodies the floor and clutching our ears screaming. My ears rang and with a myriad of tones that actually made the gelatinous liquid of the middle ear vibrate so it was like being upside down, on a wall and standing on a steep hill all at once. The torch bounced and rolled towards the other gap spinning across the polished wood.

"Nina!" Charlie wailed reaching a crooked arm for her.

Nina back-pedalled frantically, and toppled through the gap!

A paw reached out languidly and snapped the Nidoran from the air. Like a gift the noise choked and my senses filtered back into focus. "_No worries!"_ drawled Fury in a mock Metonian accent, dropping Nina onto the other side, climbing to her feet on shaking legs.

My balance recovered far more slowly.

"Torch!" I burbled, wiping away the tears with my shoulder and groping through vague luminance of the last sconce, stuttering like a strobe light. Every time the glow disappeared my heart was swallowed with it. Fingers flexed of their own accord with the feel of the sconce, granulated like it had been rolled in sand slipped my fingers around it.

"Topaz," Charlie moaned, hunched against the wall.

"Go- got it!" My fingers clenched around them with a vice grip, hauling myself to my feet and staggering and wobbling as my eyes rolled and balance swayed. I stood beneath the bracket of the last sconce alight, and jumped waving our smaller sconce to ignite it. I landed heavily, my ankle buckling under at awkward angle. Not even close. "I'm too short!" I snarled in frustration, hopping one leg still waving the sconce in wild swings!

"Give- give it to me!" Charlie gasped back, using the wall to balance.

"You are too!"

The flame swirled and sputtered!

"_Give it here, humans!"_

A cold wind like a razor rode in the wake of Javelin, talons thrust forward he seized the sconce from my flailing arm. Wings hammered like a hurricane past my ear as feathers clipped my cheek. A speed attack! The cheeky spearow swept up with the sconce dragging him down, hovering over the bracket laboriously for the sconce to catch alight!

"Onya!"

"Way to go!"

_"Show off."_

We cheered him on as his flinted eyes screwed up with effort, wings still pumping and feathers scorched in sudden licks of the flame but the fire still jumped uncertainly from one to the other.

Suddenly, Javelin grunted and the torch fell from his craggy claws, bounding over the wood end over end. The spearow sagged to the floor heaving and glaring at it. Everyone stared at the slowly centripetal circles of the cone silently, and then it flickered. A tiny tongue of pure yellow flame danced timidly before springing into a healthy glow. It seemed to magically reach into every corner, and I wondered at it. Collective sighs and looks of relief passed from person to Pokemon and back again.

I bent down for the torch, lifting the weight tentatively off my crook ankle and held it triumphantly aloft.

"You lil' battlers!" I gushed, lifting Javelin onto my outstretched arm and setting him down on guiding beam no longer needed. Kneeling beside Nina I offered a congratulatory hand. Her tiny paw sat in my own and I shook it gently. "You rose to the occasion mate."

"_Aww," _she blushed, crouching in front of Charlie.

_"What about me_?" Fury sat with her best impression of royalty and a huff. I grinned. "You! What about you?"

I flopped against the wall still holding the sconce as dearly as any child to an icecream cone beckoning her over and sitting her between my V'd legs, rubbing her between the ears. She purred, and then burped loudly. Oh well.

Charlie and I exchanged looks of pure exhaustion. No food, restricted water and this constant action. It was a miracle we could think and act so clearly and she was mulling over the same thing. We mirrored the same regretful smile.

"Do you reckon we're meant to take the board with us, or memorise it?"

I snorted. "Who cares? I'm taking it!"

"Then don't you think I should read the map?" she broached cautiously, smiling her most inoffensive smile. I shuffled uncomfortably feeling around for my discarded canteen. Yeah, I have all the sense of direction of a spinning top in a turnstile. Oh don't look so surprised, its human nature to be hypocritical!

"Let's get going," I said firmly, surprised at my own change of tune, ushering Fury out of my legs to stand up. "Now we have the map we can get to the end quicker, get a feed and then we'll be thinking better."

"You're grammar is atrocious, Topaz, but your right."

"_Disturbing, isn't it?"_

"Shutup Talon!" I grinned

Time flew as I once again fell back into my zen like stupor, plodding on after Charlie as her finger traced the board. Every now and again we'd be forced to backtrack but I didn't have the energy to complain. My stomach no longer grumbled, it didn't have the energy to complain and instead settled for making a nuisance of itself by turning into a black hole of nausea and lightheadedness.

_Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot,_ my head sang on and on as I rocked back and forth. Noises were muffled and everything just a blur, unable to make the effort to focus. Fury was beginning to moan as the better effects of being drunk wore off. I watched her with vague interest, ticking off the symptoms one after the other worsening co-ordination, more incoherent dribble and heat radiating off her.

What people don't realise is that the body has two sets of veins, one near the surface and one deep for keeping the body the right temperature. When hot the blood is shunted to near the surface where heat can diffuse easily, when cold it goes deep to preserve heat. Drunks can't feel heat or cold so the blood continues to go to the surface, and before you know hypothermia is an inch away and they're still singing Pop goes the Weasel.

Again there a nebulous, insubstantial concern that couldn't be moulded into anything real. I kept looking at her thinking _I should do something_, but that was as far as it all went. It was like I was drunk.

Charlie stopped suddenly, swaying a little unsteadily herself. Peering around her wearily and holding out the torch, a room the size of a tennis court marked with faded lines, distinctly in the centre was a Pokeball, and a kid in his early twenties kneeling on a mat.

"Are we there yet?" My whiny voice trickled into the room, and my knees gave out, dumping my already knees skinned to the flesh onto the floor. Fury's head nuzzled under my limp arm and sat back nosed forward trying to get any scent on the man.

"_Food, he's got food somewhere!"_

Every ear perked.

"_Give us the food!"_ Javelin threatened from Charlie's shoulder, beak opening and shutting menacingly.

Still the bloke stared at the ground in front of him fists resting in the knees of his hakama pants, the same as Kamikaze, or Kamuka, or whatever. A barely perceptible smirk could be seen beneath thick maroon hair bound in the same rat tail.

Torches in brackets along the walls suddenly ignited.

But that didn't hold our attention. Our eyes were riveted on the meal that sat innocently in the corner tantalising our tastebuds by the very smell that wafted across the room. I could see sandwiches with slices of red meat between them, ham or pepperoni. I could see salad, lettuce, cheese and potato. There were slices or roast beef simmering on a plate. Noodles coiled in golden snakes in a huge bowl with various bottles and shakers of condiments.

"Tsk tsk," he murmured without opening his eyes. "I am Nico, a student of the Belsprout Tower Labyrinth. If you wish to attain the food you must battle me."

"Screw that!" I snapped, and staggered forward, preparing to duck any attempts to catch me round the middle. As my knees ached against their scabs and blisters were like blobby egg yolks. One foot plonked sluggishly in front of the other but they were feeling much more limber with the promise of sustenance. Eyes followed me as I crossed the room but as I lurched just within reach in the blink of an eye the cross legs coiled like springs and shot the Sage to his feet. You'd think that the skirt-pants would have proved a nuisance but as fluid as a liquid one leg shot out and hooked my ankle, tugging it upwards while turning his body into a cartwheel kick, landing with legs equally spaced and looked ready to bow.

Of course, I viewed all this from midair, one leg kicked up the other followed dutifully! Turning frantically in midair I tried to brace myself against the impact. One palm spread against the floor but the whole of my weight was thrust upon it. Rolling over it I could feel muscles pinch and bones whine, bending at angles that would make an architect jealous. I screeched, smacking the floor with my shoulder but had the sense to roll with it.

With a brief scream I rolled across the floor, clutching my wrist to my body and rocking on my back. As I opened my eyes Charlie kneeled with an expression of concern that threatened to split it in half. Without speaking she took my hand and felt along the carpel and metacarpal bones that made up the wrist and the palm of my hand.

"You meanie!" she snarled a Niko who was looking in disarray, but his face struggled back into blankness that had obviously been drilled into him a million times before.

"It was accidental, I assure you, but none may pass until they have beaten me in a Pokemon battle."

Still clutching my hand to my chest and folding upright. My whole wrist felt as if it had taken a ride on a corkscrew. I scowled at him, fumbling along my braces for Pokeballs that weren't there when I realised Kumuza had taken them to "free our Pokemon from their confines."

"I'll battle you!" I snarled, stabbing a menacing finger at his chest.

"Wait Tez," Charlie whispered in my ear. "We should talk about this, which of our Pokem-"

"_I ch- I chal I ch-ch. I …. Les fight!" _To my horror Fury had wobbled into position of the white half of the Pokeball designated for the challenger.

"No!" Charlie and I both squawled, scrambling to the margin of the battle field and pressing against the wall.

A little flustered at being challenged by something that had trouble keeping all its limbs under control, he swallowed, walking purposefully towards the opponent's box. "Challenge accepted. It is two against two, the last Pokemon standing."

Creeping to the scuffed and worn markings of the challenger box, I swallowed with dread. All that crap about trusting your Pokemon and everything will be alright is for cartoons. Through sheer spite of that stupid Ash and Friends cartoon and had vowed that I would listen to logic first, and right now it was betting a 44 to 1 chance of her having her arse kicked inside out.

Too bloody late now.

"Alright." I said, feeling sick. My head felt heavy and lopsided, jerking from one side as if filled with lead weight. My eyes couldn't focus properly and I was blinking like a camera shudder. The past two days came crashing down on my shoulders. I had to guide Fury through this battle like this?

"When you're ready Ol'mate." His eyebrows rose, reaching inside his gi top and withdrew a Pokeball. He eyed it critically and then cast an evaluating eye on Fury. She was sitting down, with every movement as jolting as a puppet's. A grins surface hesitantly and he flicked a pokeball into the air. The red light crackled and the Pokeball returned to his hand.

Between us a Belsprout weaved like a serpent charmer's rope, its heavy bell yellow head snaked back and forth, beady eyes focused on Fury warily. Fair enough, because Fury's grin was pretty disconcerting, it looked like a jack-o-lanterns, wide and empty.

Fury lurched, suddenly gripping the ground very tightly with her claws. "_Jus-just in case it ge-sah-way again. Tricky these, this floor you got. Sometimes it wansa be the ceiling or a wall, but issa a floor right?"_

"You're Pokemon is drunk! You mock me!" he snarled in disbelief. I cringed, how bad did this look? Would they report me? I mean I ain't allowed alcohol, so how did she get some?

"_Am not! You w-wouldn't call me drunk if I was shobre!"_

"_Bel. Belsprout?"_ it asked its trainer. Nico's mouth twisted, pulling into an arrogant smirk his Pokemon and I didn't much like the look of.

At least I had type advantage. Standing on the sidelines anxiously, Charlie had mysteriously scrounged a red and a green scarf from her pockets and brought the green one down with a flourish.

"Ember, Fury!" I snapped desperate for the first move. At least I had the type advantage all I needed was one hit to cripple the grass Pokemon.

Fury sucked in a raspy breath like a smokers cough, dancing on her toes as Belsprout advanced across the field at speed that was confounding, and hiccuped! Eyes bulged like peeled grapes as the trapped embers scorched her mouth, and escaped hissing through bared teeth! She gagged with a howl! The last of the embers whirled in a harmless curlicue around her. She staggered, puffing and panting and red rimmed eyes watering.

Belsprout's chance.

"Razor leaf!"

_"Bel!_" piped Belsprout, weaving in its oily way, with each curl hurling a razor edged leaf spinning like a ninja star at Fury. Still choking, the first slashed shoulder height and she jerked away, spinning around to face Belsprout. A moment later a thread fine red line drizzled down her coat. Already the second cut across her chest and third and forth down her back as she wheeled frantically with each paper thin slice. Reeling under the barrage she fought against it, one step forward and two steps back.

Nico chuckled haughtily. "What good a trainer are you! You're Pokemon is learning backwards, can't even walk!"

"Shut up!" I snarled, my tanned cheeks paling with furious embarrassment. "At least I'm not in a skirt, poof! Move it Fury! You're getting too close to the border!"

_"Hurts," _mumbled Fury, seeping from the onslaught and struggling to her feet, or finding all four feet.

"You got yourself into it Fury," I muttered back, squatting down beside her. Belsprout hesitated, any attack might hit me. "You got yourself into it, and I'm not pulling you out without damaging Belsprout!"

From the wall I saw Charlie's shocked expression and was preparing to switch to the red flag, for loss or surrender but I shot such a furious glare and flash of teeth like a Rockitile that she winced and glared back darkly.

"The battle will continue," she stated without emotion, staring at the floor. At my back I felt eyes with the same resentment.

Fury sagged, wobbling away from the challenger's box but stalked forward with the drunk's stubborn determination that was usually confined to who could pee the furthest.

_Stubborn as you are! _laughed Scotty's voice. It was the same voice that had claimed jokingly I wasn't meant to be a trainer and as I watched Belsprout consider the least painful way to get Fury out of the way, I couldn't find a comeback, and was angry, angry at a voice in my head!

"Tackle!" I snapped. If I couldn't use long distance attacks we'd have to take the battle to it! _It was a grass types and they tended towards being slow._ That tactic sounded about as right as one of my Nana's home remedies but Fury hurtled heedlessly at Belsprout limbs flying like washing in the wind! It squeaked as if caught in the headlights of a semitrailer and didn't know which way Fury would lunge.

She didn't, she just kept galloping and a wild paw brought a stunning blow to Belsprout's head as she passed, and kept going.

_Bang!_

Fury plastered herself against the wall and both Pokemon spun in drunken dazes around the floor!

_"The walls are play'n tricks on meeeeee!"_

"Buh-_Beeeeeeel_

"Quick Fury! Ember!" I crowed, eyes gleaming with a crazed light as I glimpsed Niko's shell-shocked expression and wanted to drive home a victory straight between his cocky teeth! With eyes crossed Fury inhaled again, her belly filling like a balloon and exhaled a fiery gust, tiny glowing ashes in as swirling tunnel at the Belsprout.

"Take it and Wrap it Bela!"

The ember attack blew crazily around Belsprout them both, scorching ash white spots across its leaves but it ignored it, its face contorted with determination as its roots swathed around Fury's waist, squeezing and severing the funnelling fire attack with a gasp.

"Come on Fury! Get out! You aren't even trying!" Fury struggled and writhed but each time she breathed in Belspout wound it vines tighter, hitching beneath her ribcage. "Ember Fury!"

Her answer was a sick gagging sound and my fist punched the air in frustration. Now Niko was chuckling softly, not a mean sound, but it was like a brick to the back of the head. "For gawds sake Fury! Do something-"

"I declare the match over! The match goes to Belsprout." Every pair of eyes whipped to face Charlie, standing with an expression of stony authority. "Recall Fury Topaz."

"She can battle!"

"Recall her." Her tone left no question and my whole face had flushed a waxy white with anger. I shot a furious look to Niko who was only smirking knowingly and Belsprout who had released Fury and patting her on the back with clear relief as she coughed and regained her breath. It caught me staring, its small black pebble eyes held mine with a tangible wave of disapproval and pity.

"Return Fury," I growled. I didn't need pity! "Talon, I choose you!"

_"I ain't battling for you!"_

My eyes widened and I wheeled to face the other Pokemon sitting with quiet amazement and even shock. "What do you mean! I am your trainer!"

"_Yeah, you were Fury's trainer too and look what you did to her! You're meant to be her, _our, _friend!"_

Through gritted teeth I said, "I am your trainer first."

"_She was your first!_" rallied Javelin, his fierce eyes now narrowed into seething slits. "_It's an open sky, we protect and fight for you, and you do the same!"_

My eyes scanned the growing rebellion. "Target."

_"Sent!"_ The Pokemon was trying to hide itself amongst the bodies, looking timidly over Javelin's outstretched wing.

_"_No, I'll battle." A reassurance spread across the Pokemon as Charlie came behind me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and leaned into my ear. I recoiled and glared sullenly but she ignored it. "No you won't Topaz. You're tired, hungry and stressed. Yesterday was tough but I'm going to take over before you do anymore damage. Be a trainer and comfort Fury."

We looked to the centre. Belsprout returned to its side of the arena but Fury still sat with her mouth open with shallow pants. I tried to remember if quilavas were like dogs with no sweat pores and so moisture had to be lost through panting but I couldn't remember.

It was suddenly all to hot.

Fury glanced up and caught my eye and looked away, staring at the ground as she wobbled and fell down beside Charlie's Sentret in the entrance.

Meanwhile Charlie took up the challenger's box and she ushered Maverick onto the challenger's side.

_Great,_ I fumed inwardly slamming my fist into the wall behind me. I slumped against a wall away from the others. _No way we'll win now!_

"You do realise that in order to win you have to beat both Belsprout and my second Pokemon?"

"Of course," she said with a bright smile. "Mave's up for it."

"_To!"_ he agreed mindlessly, dancing on his toes. There was a pause as they waited for me to commence the match but I stared woodenly back. Niko rolled his eyes at me.

"Go Mave! Rage!" Charlie trumpeted and Mave lunged. Belsprout tried its slippery weaving but as soon as one hit the others came tumbling like an avalanche! The first strike ripped across its spindly waist, the second sliced a leaf clean off and the third dragged down its back as it spun to retreat!

"Razor Leaf!" commanded Niko. Leaves erupted from its uninjured limb but they fell away in ribbons between gleaming claws! Mave's eyes glowed like coals and waves of turquoise energy rolled off him. His lips were pulled back in a very un-Maverick like sneer.

"_Mine," he_ growled low and menacing, advancing slow and purposefully.

"_Bel?"_ Belsprout pleaded, edging backwards. Sap seeped from the slashes across

"Return Belsprout." He offered Charlie a brittle smile. "That came down quick. But now you are going to be sorry your friend lost her temper."

"Oi!"

"Maverick's at full Rage, his attack grew with every attack he landed and that would make three!" Charlie returned confidently, striking a peace sign. Oh gawd, how _Ash and Friends_ could you get? "Better hope he doesn't reach five!"

"I choose Ectoparus."

It oozed from the wall a small, squat reddish purple creature leaving a pinkish slime bleeding from the walls as it emerged.

_Slat, slat_.

Two tentacles protruded and slapped the wall, dragging itself further from the knotted woodwork. A heavy bulbous head speckled with crimson dots and a ridge of red beads down the centre, a milky white eye as big as my fist and six more tentacles finally squatted on the wall, the eye seeming to roll sightlessly over the room as we gawked curiously back.

I could vaguely place its shape from an old documentary from the **Dictioy** region, east of the Janera. An octopus Pokemon. _Slook, slook, slook. _It dragged itself down the wall, its cherry pink suckers made popping sound every time they came loose. Eventually it came to rest and I saw that between its fore tentacles were the four keratin beaks of a squid and floating luxuriously as if on ocean currents was a set of frills much like a cuttlefish.

"You can't do that!" I suddenly protested. "This place is the Belsprout Monastary, therefore-" I added, bringing my ring and thumb finger like a fine wine connoisseur, "You should be using a Belsprout!"

_"We don't know her, honestly."_

"Be quiet Talon!"

Needless to say I was ignored. Mave shoulders still rose and fell as he twitched, waiting for his opponent to move, and Ectoparus squelched in a spreading puddle of goo.

"Let the match commence!" Mave lunged, swiping valiantly at Ectoparus who stared without interest. The razor sharp claws cleaved its body in two in Mave's wake, his paddle feet skidding away on a slick of slime! In front of me Charlie's lips moved in silent revelation and I could almost imagine she was swearing. I too had suddenly jumped to the realisation. Ectoparus was a ghost type! Physical attacks didn't work and to my growing dismay I couldn't recall the little 'dile ever using an elemental attack.

"Wrap Ectoparus!"

"Counter with leer!"

With the effects of the Rage wearing off, his eyes flashed and Ectoparus flinched.

"Dropping his defence won't do any good," laughed Niko, "if you can't attack!"

"Leer again!" This time its sloppy approach was only slowed.

"Run Mave!" she ordered desperately. Mave gurgled and darted to the left but a tentacle shot out, and coiled around Mave's ankle! It yanked him into the air, swinging and dangling! As he swung to face his opponent he Leered frantically in rapid blinks but all it did was make it move in jerks like a bad animation. Mave swiped again but there was still no effect. I buried my head in my hands, raking my fingers through my fringe.

Suddenly their came a gurgling and choking sound and Mave's chest bulged like there was something inside it!

"Come'on!" Charlie coaxed. "Watergun!"

Well, it was hardly the spectacular jet from cartoons that saved the day just in the nick of time, but it worked. A trickle akin to a stone cherub in a fountain squirted Ectoparus right in the eye! With a voice like tin sheets being wobbled it hurled Mave across the floor but the Totodile grinned and bore it, climbing to his feet and inhaled. Ectoparus was still scrubbing its eye with a tentacle and another thin spout arched over the room, pattering on his head.

Under normal circumstances it would hardly have been worth noticing but the repeated leers would have made a mosquito bite something to worry about. It staggered, shivering and making more wobbly moaning sounds.

"Mean Look!" shouted Niko as his Pokemon slobbered its way along, its beak opening and closing in harsh gasps. It spun and glared, lights glowing eerily from his eyes and it was like Mave had suddenly stuck his feet in cement! He jerked and swung but his feet remained frozen to the floor!

"Just one big splash, darl!" she urged. "Look how tired it is!"

_"I'm tired too," he_ gurgled wearily, but he hitched his chest so that it swelled, growing and growing as Ectoparus slapped closer, _slook slook slook._ Finally it loomed above the totodile, rising to its full hight as if in an attempt to smother him beneath its bulk.

"NOW!"

Fwoot! Nothing could have compared either Pokemon! Ectoparus screeched like nails on tin as the blast caught its belly like a parachute and it almost splatted _through_ the wall, narrowly missing its trainer and Mave, with the force of the water was shot backwards, accelerated by the drips of slime that and spattered in the course of the battle and just in time Charlie snapped her knees together and caught him like a soccer goalie! And he was still inside the challenger's side! Ectoparus was out for the count, and returned to his Pokeball as Niko stroked hits jelly like head.

"All you need to do is stand up and you've won!" whispered Charlie, with barely concealed delight.

His little blue brows knotted and one claw pushed him up, followed by the second and with a groan he was on his feet, swaying and grinning!

Cheers erupted from the Pokemon behind me as they rushed forward, crowding him and congratulating him, and then bulldozed him to the picnic in the corner.

Niko shook hands with Charlie, and then came to me with a sombre expression.

"I know a loss isn't easy, and from the sound of your friend you aren't normally like that."

"I've known her for two days, she doesn't know anything," I muttered into my chest as I picked up Fury, snoozing drunkenly.

"What I'm trying to say," the student of temple said with growing impatience. "Is do you see how counter productive it was to battle without considering your pokemon's limitations? I'm not going to ask how she got drunk, there's no way you obtained the alcohol legally and no trainer, no matter how irresponsible would let them drink in such circumstances. Sit and eat with us, I have potions to heal Fury, and I'm sure I can find some balm for yourself."

"I don't need your help."

"Need or not, you're going to get it." The teen took Fury from my arms, watching me suppress a cringe as the sores and scabs on my arms complained.

"How on earth did that happen? The temple was designed for beginning trainers. Which task did you do, the bridge or the maze?"

"What do you mean which, we did both!"

"Both! You can't have! That means you must have done one and backtracked to do the other!" laughed Niko, setting Fury down at the edge of the picnic and pouring us both drinks, mine in a glass and Fury in an ornate bowl. I coaxed her awake by kneading her neck and she stirred, silently began to lap, rubbing her temple.

"Charlie!" I growled, sculling the cup and handing it back for more but she grinned back with cheeks bulging and a salami roll clenched possessively in her fist.

Niko laughed wholeheartedly now, "Tell me all about it, I think you deserve help with how to tackle the second level!"

_18th November 2004_


	6. WoC4c

Where's Your Head At  
_Don't let the walls cave in on you  
We can't evolve alone without you  
Don't let the walls cave in on you  
We can't evolve alone without you  
Don't let the walls cave in on you  
You get what you give that much is true  
Don't let the walls cave in on you  
You turned the world away from you_

Basement Jaxx

After the battle the winnings had come to a measly two hundred each, enough for one Pokeball. I swore and wondered if I could pawn some of my cooking utensils, hoping that Charlie didn't have the same idea. Damnit! Why didn't I take Nico's offer!

Of course, I knew perfectly well why.

Once our bellies were positively round with satisfaction and promises made that the money would be waiting for us at the end, I slipped off, laying Fury down in the corner snoring like my old school bus. I spoke curtly to Target to warm her. He agreed right away but was obviously uncomfortable. Quilava in the wild were known to pinch newborns from burrows.

As I slunk away both bird Pokémon glared down at me, roosting on the extinguished brackets. I paid no attention; I told myself not to pay attention and kept them squarely at my back before slouching against the wall out of the torches smoky glow in the little corridor that led to the battle field.

Feeling even lower I rested my chin on my knees.

_ This wasn't the way it was supposed to be, _ I thought morosely. I cursed the Ash and Friends cartoon savagely, and then all those trainers on TV who looked as if they'd stepped out of a glossy magazine. I cursed the PokéNet and Charlie for making it looked so easy, but most of all I cursed my Pokémon. I felt betrayed.

Not so much Fury, you can't expect much from a drunk and co-ordination least of all, but Target and Talon…. All I had done was my job as a trainer, to lead my Pokémon on to _Victory._ That magical place where everyone was perfect and happy. Every win counted, no battle was so small.

"I have some balm that can help those blisters."

I jerked violently and only just refrained from taking a swipe at Niko's knees. Without turning and hoping the dark had veiled most of my reaction I said airily, "What blisters?

"Don't be pert."

"What blisters," I repeated stubbornly.

Sighing with exasperation, he sat down beside me. "You're upset because Pidgey didn't obey you." I didn't dignify it with an answer. I could feel his eyes travel searchingly over my hunched body and then tried a different route. "How long have you been a trainer?"

"What day is it?"

"Monday night."

"A week today."

The silence deepened as all but one torch winked out. It continued as I tried to probe his reaction.

"How long does it take you to trust someone with your life? Seven days?" My mouth went dry as I tried to by angry with his stupid zen questioning but instead was a slowly bubbling embarrassment. The truth was I didn't trust my friends, but that was because at any moment they could hogtie me to a Hills Hoist clothesline and leave me to turn idly in the wind.

"But it's not the same!" I blurted, but hurriedly covered my mouth and shot a look towards the sleeping crew. They were exhausted, so was I for that matter.

"How?"

"I'm their trainer!" I hissed hotly.

"Why?"

"Because I beat them in battle!"

"Did _you_?"

I hesitated and ploughed on. "I captured them!"

"What gave you that right?"

Faltering I faced him in confusion. "But everyone does it!" My voice was turning pleading and was rapidly losing its conviction. My mouth flapped trying to form words or more likely, an excuse.

The shine of his lips formed a gentle smile. "The fact is the media is for more romantic than reality. I'm twenty two and have been training since I was ten. Guess how many Pokémon I've released. Not for some noble, nebulous reason like Ash Ketchum or Russel Coight, simply we rubbed each other the wrong way. Three dozen, probably more." There was a rustle of fabric as Nico got up and his silhouette leaned on the wall. "Every Pokémon, I think, has this hole inside. They're fiercely loyal and need something to direct it at, something to fill that hole. A clan, a cause, a trainer. Topaz, it may just be a case of a square peg in a round hole."

As I watched him stretch out in a corner, I turned back towards the emptiness. A chill in spite of the sticky temperature of the room slithered down my back.

As I lay down with my knees close to my body, I squeezed my eyes shut.

_ A square peg in a round hole…._

I'd like to say for dramatic reasons it haunted my dreams, but no.

I dreamed of holding the title of Pokémon Champion from a towering podium above my roaring crowd. Looking over my shoulder was the glittering form of Metone's legendary Iriserpant, its immense bejewelled snake coils winding around the podium.

No, loyalty was not a trait highly valued by humans.

_ Clang!_

My lids flew open like roll-a-blinds and almost inhaled a panicky mouthful of fur. Jerking back my head smashed against the skirting board. To make it worse the whole area had been attacked by a mad fretworker so I probably would have a Belsprout shaped lump that could be added to the lengthening list of injuries.

Rubbing the back of my head groggily I set up and looked down with dawning amazement. Snuggled in the crook of my lap was Fury, breathing deeply and noisily.

_ A square peg in a round hole…._

My throat closed but I shunted away the emotion when another loud clatter rebounded around the walls.

"Snuh?" Charlie tossed around in her little corner before sitting up groggily, flopped over her legs was Mave who was showing all the traits of those blessed individuals who could dream happily in a tiny orange crate ankle deep in a creek somewhere.

"Oi! Gehoutovit!" I cried, plunging my hand down and grabbing Charlie's sentret, Cookie, by the nape of the neck. Spinning her around to face me it was all I could do to keep a stern expression. The tiny sentret's cheek pouches were bulging with rice while she tried to smile nonchalantly. Her particularly long ears sagged long enough to be tied beneath her chin.

At my feet Target, Javelin and Talon wore identical 'Who me? What food... Oh this food!' expressions.

"Everyone drop it!" I snapped, dropping down and scooping the remaining food into a pile between my knees. Charlie shuffled blearily over and Niko's head appeared frowning from around the other corridor, stepping gingerly over Fury.

Talon swallowed hastily and then rallied defiantly. _"We have as much right to this food as you, right guys?"_

The Pokémon backed away looking abashed.

"What 'dya think I was going to do? Eat it all myself?" I said irritably, doing some vague sums in my head as I looked at what was left. The quiet left no doubt this was exactly what he was thinking. The least he could do was look apologetic. Our gazes held steady and neither was going to drop them Unfortunately a pidgey, even one as small and natty as him would eventually have eyesight that could cut through murky waters and inevitably won the staring contest.

"Haven't you guys ever heard of rationing?" Charlie chuckled turning a ham sandwich over in hand. I glanced at the assembled Pokémon.

Talon as he was now fed on grains and seed. As prey to ground dwelling carnivores it meant filling up the gullet and digesting later. Javelin the spearow was a raptor and that meant bolting down your food because you never knew where your next meal was coming from. The sentrets in colder climates would store away larders but otherwise would stuff themselves stupid in preparation against the cold.

I shook my head. Charlie shrugged, squatting to see what we had left. "Well, we can't take these liquidy meals, so we should have them now. The rest," – a few sandwiches, bickies and for some bizarre reason a box of fortune cookies- "we can take the rest with us and have it for late afternoon tea if it doesn't look like we'll meet the next check point."

I snickered. "Sounds like we're in a movie, getting ready to plant bombs on a bridge."

"This time it shouldn't be too difficult," Nicko said, looking down on our plans approvingly. "You have the map now and the other two levels are based on it. Back to front, upside down, you decide. But," he paused meaningfully, "pay attention. On the level above not everything is as it seems."

He bowed, dropped a wink, and vanished down the hallway we had come from. I sighed, if anything else I had at least got a bunch of advice to take with me, whether I wanted it or not. I've always felt that ignorance was bliss and now I felt distinctly uncomfortable that I couldn't fumble the blame of yesterday on to anyone else.

"How do we carry these," I mumbled to myself, stacking up the goodies. "Oi, Charlie. Hand over those scarves from yesterday."

Bundling them into the red and green scarves and slipped one each over the tails over the sentrets, who slurping down noodles. Pausing to wonder about their digestive systems, I then filled two bowls, one noodles, the other water and slipped my canteen over my shoulder, relieved that it felt completely full.

"Come on, wake up Metonia!" I murmured gently, nudging her with my knee. There was a snort, a hind leg kicked out feebly and finally a long agonised moan.

"Hey Fury," I said soothingly. "Here's some water, drink up. A hangover is caused by dehydration."

_ "Didration?" _ she slurred. _ "Oh my mouth is foul! And my head!"_

The whites of her eyes looked an icky yellow with the membranes around it very pale, both signs of dehydration. Fury didn't so much as drink as plunge her head in, the tinder patches hissing as water washed over them. With water dripping from her beetled brows she lapped slowly, wincing at the loud bickering from the other room. Watching her gloomily, I pensively ate my own noodles and pushed her share towards her.

_ A square peg in a round hole…._

_ Gawddamn__ you Niko._

Fury reached the dregs of her water and her food bowl faster than I did, and then sagged onto her side. _"Did yesterday happen_?"

"Almost as often as tomorrow does," I joked feebly. Fury's tired and scrunched up face cracked a smile.

_ "Don't be funny, Tez, it doesn't suit you."_ She sighed but her face turned to a pained scowl. _ "I'm sorry"_

My jaw dropped! "You're sorry? We were the ones who fed you the fermenting berries-"

_ "Is this why my head feels like this?"_

"Uh, yeah. I battled with you. I wouldn't quit."

Fury stared at me thoughtfully over one splayed paw, her garnet eyes twinkling as if thinking of some inner joke. After a moment she heaved herself up, grimaced and said warmly. "_Let's say we both stuffed up and get on with it. The sooner we get out the better. I hate this place. Hey, do you still have those Arse-per-rin?"_

I grinned. Heh heh, arseperin. I would have to remember that one. I diffidently poured out a bit more and dropped in the fizzing tablet. As I stuffed the meagre first aid case back into my pocket I felt a little guilty. Here I was bagging Charlie for a bit of lippy when stuffed in another pocket was my father's badge case. I kept hoping it would bring luck, what kind of luck seemed all too clear.

A few moments later everything was stacked away, I held aloft the torch and carried the spare powder Niko gave us, Charlie had the map and the sentrets had the food. We stood at the base of another curling staircase leading up. Onto the second level, turning up the steps the torch light flowing over the cases tight spirals I was reminded of a fairytale theme park I had visited when I was little, scrambling up ahead of my parents and brother to see the styrofoam battlements at the top.

Without realising this was what I was expecting, a small gasp escaped as I lead the party into the open. Half a dozen identical me's gasped back sinisterly in the poor light.

Cookie squealed and darted back into the stair case before Target grabbed her tail and pulled her back, whispering into her floppy ears, patting her on the back soothingly although he too looked around timidly. Cookie continued to hide her head in her paws until her new brother figure crept up to one of his reflections cautiously and pressed his paw against it.

_ "Not real, see?"_

We all stepped out into what seemed like a closed room, each wall was divided into panels and each panel was a mirror. Maverick explored it with what seemed his primary sense, taste, slurping noisily and leaving a sticky trail.

"A joke?" I asked Charlie, running my finger down the crevice between panels. She leaned into the light, running her finger over the termite like squiggles of the map.

"I don't know," she admitted with faint worry tinging her voice. "I think I might have it right way up, but there should be a door over there," pointing roundabout where Fury was sniffing.

_ "You're right,_"she agreed slowly. _"I smell footprints but they lead through this wall._" She nosed the panel then flared her crest for better light. "_Hold ya horses,_" she whispered, squinting really hard, nose to nose with her reflection. No one moved as she stood up and pressed her weight against the edge of the panel and to our delight it swung with difficulty inward into another room.

"They concealed the doors with mirrors!" Charlie grinned, to my disgust, with admiration.

"_You can see through them if you stare really hard!"_ gloated Fury.

I chewed my lip thoughtfully. "What we need is the eyes of a predator."

Javelin swooped from Charlie's shoulder, both birds had taken up residence on either side, onto my arm and clambered to the end. He seemed more ready to forgive me than Talon, but then again he also seemed more mature. Fury backed out and the door swung slowly closed again on what could only be an old spring.

With little effort, the spearow cocked his head from side to side and agreed he could see through it, like really murky water.

"Well then guys," Charlie said, "We're going to need a new game plan because this means we've started in a different room. We can't use the same path as last time but we can use the same exit."

"Does it?" I said to my own gruesome reflection. Frowning, I decided to take stock of myself.

Running a finger beneath my eye, it had lost the puckered squinting look and had faded to a colourful greenish yellow, flecked with purple and didn't hurt if I poked it. My nose, which had looked like a crazed colourblind makeup artist had been let loose was normal but could feel that bubble at the back of my sinuses that always preluded the sniffles. I cast another despairing look around. The thought of being trapped without a hanky was unbearable and I wondered just how many trainers made it through the labyrinth first go.

My finger trailed down my neck, pausing for a movement over the splotches left by Tobias's fingers and over my shoulder where a nasty bruise was still stark on my bicep, almost as big as my fist with half a dozen others speckled along my arm's lengths. Although my elbow bands were beginning to chaff I think I owed how limber they were after the bridge mess, both to them and my legwarmers.

Turning my calves I could see in the dull light of the mirrors the blisters that rose like a cataclysmic volcano disaster and I had done my best to keep them covered, tugging my socks up, my shorts down and stretched the warmers until only slivers of bare skin were exposed. Turning with my back to the mirror I pulled back the worst beneath my togs top. Even I, a veteran of rough and tumble play curled my lip with revulsion.

A perfectly straight line the colour of old beatroot was stamped across my floating ribs from where my gut had wrapped around the pylon. Dull bruises were fading on my back and around my kidneys. The giddy prediction made in the forest had been right on the money, but it was hardly social conversation.

Pivoting and posing in front of my reflection I felt uneasy. If this was all superficial damage, what was I going to look like on the inside? After many enthusiastic dissections during biology I could certainly hazard a guess.

I blithely told myself I had had much worse and chided I was being a wuss. Round home we kids wore sores and scabs like morbid badges of honour. With my hand still covering over the line I sternly promised myself to see a doctor and have a quiet word.

I cringed.

On second thought, I'll have a quiet word with Nurse Joy. I doubted I could afford a doctor.

"Mirror mirror, on the wall," Charlie purred, coming up behind me.

"You can't talk," I grinned with a playful shove. Sure enough on the inside of her arm was a scaly brown scab stretching from triceps to elbow and the other had a rubbed raw look. Bruises like ink dripped down her thighs and sported a vivid splotch on her jawline.

"What are you talking about," she laughed happily, guiding me by the shoulders through the door. "This is the glamorous life of a trainer!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Our little congaline threaded a determined path through the maze, confident we'd reach the end of this level in time for lunch. I lead bearing the torch with Charlie at my elbow. Javelin sat pleasantly, or as pleasant as a spearow can look, on my shoulder offering his expertise and Talon sulked on hers. Maverick and the sentrets played through our feet.

Fury, however, trailed behind, often just in reach of the swimming light. This worried me as I fancied I heard shifting, doors a little way off opening by themselves and baleful cackles just out of earshot. If I turned spontaneously to look at my reflection trudging along on either side I wasn't quite sure it was mine, like a funhouse mirror.

When I told Charlie about this she breezily shrugged it off and put it down to one of the other trainers wandering around lost.

Fair enough. Even so the guilt would get to me and I'd push the torch into Mave's claws and amble along beside her if only for a little while. After a short water break and an unsuccessful attempt to patch up with Talon, I sunk back grouchily into the gloom.

"What does he want!" I fumed, scuffing the wooden floor irritably.

_ "He doesn't know what he wants,"_ she replied despondently, her face still creased dourly against her headache. In spite of the depleted water bottle I made sure everyone drank plenty, her especially. _ "He wants to evolve but he doesn't want to be told what to do."_

"Then why doesn't he tell me to release him."

_ "Would you? Besides, ever heard of a wild Pidgeot?"_ she smirked.

I paused reflectively. "Yeah, there was that one the day Tobias- uh, they day we met Tobias in the forest."

_ "Can't have been wild," Fury_ scoffed. She stopped again to paw at her translator, the tiny black box that clipped onto her collar.

"Is it uncomfortable?"

_ "Not usually, rubbing against my throat makes me sick."_

A little reluctantly I unsnapped and pocketed the translator. "Alright?" Again I thought I heard laughter.

"_Quila__,"_ she purred as Target fumbled the torch far ahead.

"Back in a bit, be careful."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"There," I cried, whirling around from the head of the line and thrusting the torch at Charlie. "There it was again! It wasn't a person!"

Charlie calmly pushed the torch away the torch aimed at her chest and cocked her head, as did the others. "I can't hear anything, Tez."

"Laughter!" I snarled through gritted teeth. "It's closer too! I bet it's those monks!" I added whirling a reflection and pressing my ear to it. What was that? A giggle? Charlie pulled me gently away from the wall. "I'm sure you did hear something," she said in a pacifying, no, patronising tones.

"Ay! Just because I'm short doesn't mean I'm a baby!"

"No one said you were!"

Suddenly a panel slammed shut down the mirrored corridor behind us. I scanned the face and gasped. "Fury! You let her fall behind again!"

_ "She's your Pokémon," sneered_ Talon, preening casually on Charlie's shoulder.

"ShutUP Talon. I am so sick of you!" I barked and raced back down the hall, calling out to her. Oh gawd! How long had she been gone? How many doors had we gone through? One wrong turn and we'd never find her!

Panic was climbing further and further up my throat and I yelled her name louder, straining to hear anything in return. Then I heard it, ever so softly, the slight squeak of old springs closing back into place behind. Skidding to a stop I sidled cautiously back up the corridor, pressing myself against the wall just on a hunch as I came upon a sharp corner.

I paused. What did I think was there? The source of those inhuman giggles?

Having grown up amongst three large boys you learnt to be very wary of sharp corners and I knew to go wide of them to see who lurked there, and at least get a running start.

On the other hand, I could be seen when I didn't want to. It was separating me from the group, who I hoped were waiting patiently, considering I had the torch. I also hoped I hadn't turned any stray corners.

_ Fine,_ I thought. _On the count of three.__ One. Two. Two and a quarter._

"HARUUUUU- RARGH!" I yelled, lunging into the middle of the corridor with arms swinging. "-Ruahuh?"

Fury sat in the middle of the floor with a perplexed look. One ear cocked forward. "Geeze Fury! Why didn't you come when I called?" I sighed, my shoulders sagging with relief.

Fury hesitated, and then her paw rose to her throat. Her shiny collar was missing. "Damn!" I swore aloud, but knowing I should be grateful she was okay. So this was what it felt like to be a parent. "You lost it and you went back to look for it?"

She nodded eagerly with a huge goofy grin, nosing the air back the way I'd come. I hesitated, feeling the giggle on the cusp of hearing. Her translator still nestled inside my badgecase was useless which made me feel more uneasy. These troubled feelings didn't come from not being able to natter to my best mate, but something more ambiguous, like a photo and the caption saying "spot the mistakes" where there were none.

I waved it away and hurried back to the group with Fury trotting amicably by my ankles.

_ "Took long enough," Javelin_ grinned beakily as we turned the last corner and the torchlight rolled over them.

"Almost there," Charlie assured brightly, turning the map to me and tapping where we were. With the strange illumination of the torch, Javelin perching on her head and Talon on her shoulder she looked like a funky scarecrow.

The image brought a smile to my worried expression. "We're making good time and it's just after lunch, if my Pokegear is still working, do we wanna stop for a snack?"

_ "Nu-uh," _ said Cookie in a low voice, scratching a dangling ear anxiously. Her gaze rose to the ceiling, it too was made of foggy mirrors. "_Didn't you feel it get cold? It only just come and stuff."_

Charlie and I shook our heads. We, in our ludicrously skimpy trainers outfits, should have been the first to feel any sudden chill but the Pokémon one by one agreed, except for-

_ "But I'm hungry now,_" growled Talon sullenly.

_ "_Too bad, majority rules," I goaded offering him a smug smile.

"What about Fury," he tried again, the translator around his neck selecting a wheedling tone. "She might need a rest."

All gazes swung to the Quilava who recoiled. Uncharacteristic confusion flooded her face and she shot an almost inconspicuous glance at the mirror. My own gaze twisted in sympathy in time to see a smudge fade from the reflection. It was there so briefly I couldn't have been sure it was there, and not one of those fuzzy spots you get from staring at a bright light.

That sense of wrongness crept back again. The longer I stood at the mirror its intensity increased. I wondered for the first time if they weren't funhouse mirrors and they were causing me to stare myself crosseyed.

_ "-have a headache?"_ Talon watched with brooding suspicion, leaning off Charlie's shoulder with his feathers fluffed out so he looked like a threatening brown marshmallow.

Fury shrugged quickly and jogged off, her crest igniting and spreading the light further ahead, purposefully pausing for the others to catch up.

As I cast a last look back at the mirror, searching for something, anything, Talon's talons suddenly gripped none too gently onto my wrist.

"_Wait,"_ he hissed, tightroping down to my elbow. Only Charlie waited, holding the mirror panel open. Talon shook a wing and called out they should go on, but not to far.

"Come to apologise?" I simpered, sitting down and shifting him onto my knee. Of course I knew that wasn't the case but our thread delicate relationship meant that we could only antagonise each other. Talon's refusal to forgive annoyed the hell out of me so I was doing my best to give him an aneurism before we left the labyrinth. When I was in top condition I could annoy at a subatomic level.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. How mean! How childish!

Newsflash, I was a child and a particularly immature one at that.

His cold stare confirmed this. With disgusted reluctance to help me he said in a low voice, each word short and sharp as if explaining to a particularly stupid and troublesome child, _"That. Isn't. Fury."_

'You mean I really am travelling with Mewtwo, just like I always wanted?" I gushed, cupping my chin in my hands with mock surprise.

_ "It isn't Fury! Why isn't she talking?"_

"Because I have her translator!"

"_Oh, and I suppose she was a mute before she met you, hmm? You heard what Cookie said, there was a chill when she came back."_

"It was caused by a door!"

_ "Oh gods you're an idiot!"_

"You do realise if you were nicer to me I'd be more inclined to listen to you, don't you?" I retorted in the same infuriatingly cheerful voice.

_ "No you wouldn't! You just hate me because I'm not a puddle of gratitude at your beck and call!"_

"What a big vocabulary for a pigeon!" I yelled, bounding to my feet sending Talon fleeing to the air.

_ "Pigeon?__ Pigeon! You want a pigeon!"_ he screamed back and suddenly, he _blurred._ He blurred and something kicked my leg out from under me as it shot past. I crashed into the wall and slid down groaning. Rubbing my temple where it butted the panel, I spied Talon grinning with glee.

_ "Quick Attack, Topaz,_" he gloated. _ "I learnt it all by myself!"_

"Why you little!" I snarled, lunging with arms swinging, but he fluttered to the ceiling, out of reach. "Fine! You don't need me, than bugger you! Get lost for all I care!"

_ "With pleasure!"_ And to my disbelief and indignation he did! His wings beat furiously and he veered tightly around the corner with a puff of feathers.

Limping, I bent down with thunderous grumbles and plucked up the torch that had rolled away. Still staring expectantly at the corner, I waited. There was no way even that bird could be so dumb. I mean I had the torch and he didn't have the vision to see the labyrinth let alone navigate it without the map.

_ Ah hell, may as well tell the guys we're stopping for a break. Even if he is bullheaded we can't go on without him_

I hobbled over to the panel and pushed against it, feeling the first seeds of remorse for my idiotic behaviour. Why oh why couldn't I keep my mouth shut?

"What the?" I mumbled. My eyes narrowed as I tried to see through the mirror, giving it another firm push. The panel was locked solid! I was positive this one was it. Rapping on the surface, I mooshed my face against the glass and shouted, "Chaaaaaarr-Leeeeee!"

Straining to hear a reply this time the laughter was clear, and menacing, and right by my ear!

With a strangled squeak I shoved myself away from it, tangled my own feet and rolled backwards. The panel opposite gave way with greasy ease. A loud _oomph_ escaped and a pinched cry as I rolled over my neck. Sprawled flat on my back, it hurt as I got up and turned to look over my shoulder for the torch.

_ Kinked! Just what I need! _ I fumed, but it was forced and had a barely concealed hysteria to it. It was always better to be angry than frightened. Anger had a kind of pro-activeness about it, prepared to go in kicking and face what you had to eventually. Fear was the opposite, it meant backing down and running away. In here, backing down would get you cornered and running away was blind.

With the torch once again throttled in my fingertips, my palm thrust against the panel with the other raised, prepared to clobber Sir Laugh-a-Lot into a vegetated state, but the panel didn't budge. I tried the one beside it frantically hoping I had chosen the wrong one in confusion, and the other one. They remained firmly perpendicular.

I didn't even entertain the thought the doors were wedged shut with rust, something was acting against us, trying to split us up.

"Damn it, the fluffball was right." And to my loathing, this frustrated me the most. Geeze, I did have problems!

'Okay," I whispered and knelt down. My voice, for once in a lifetime, was actually reassuring rather than it usual rodent-dangled-over-a-frypan reedyness. "Dad always said the first thing you should do when you know you're lost is tally up your resources."

"Number one, I have the torch. Charlie has the extra powder so that means I'm on a time limit."

"Two, my first aid kit. Bandage, gauze, antiseptic. Push comes to shove I can burn them."

"Three, nearly empty water bottle. Bugger."

"Four, badgecase and translator. The badgecase is kinda heavy, perhaps I could use it to smash a mirror." I immediately discarded the idea. Only professionals broke glass without slitting their own wrist. Then there was the fact this was a temple and was bound to piss off one god or another. Seven years bad luck was probably a minimum sentence.

Now what? When lost in the desert you stayed put, but that would be wasting the valuable resource of light, unless I snuffed it out. The idea of sitting in the dark while mysterious strangers closed in didn't thrill me.

As if on cue a high pitched cackle echoed down the corridor. They had split us up so now they were no longer hiding themselves. Gathering my knickknacks and slinging my canteen over my shoulder, I strode after it.

I would not be herded.

The snarl of corridors continued to wind but the laughter led me purposefully down the right doors. I tracked it. It was better than wandering aimlessly.

While I stalked the disembodied voices, I felt the need to reassure me with my own, for lack of a better word, singing. Tuneless rhymes that usually kept me amused.

"There was an old lady that swallowed a cow!

I don't know how, she swallowed a cow.

She swallowed the cow to catch the dog

What a hog to swallow a dog

She swallowed the dog-"

As I pushed through a door at the beckoning of a giggle, a solid, steady light made itself known. My quavering excuse for singing trailed off.

Okay, this was obviously what they wanted me to find. Then what? The icy white light flowed coldly from beneath a panel, back into the suddenly welcoming corridor.

I was all alone, following ghastly screams and about to throw open a door. Hang on, I'd seen this movie before….. and I was the humorous sidekick…..

The door made the decision for me, swinging open as I inched closer and pushed it the rest of the way. My first thoughts were not of alarm, I merely blinked and thought, 'reflection'. It was only upon stepping into the room and foolishly letting the door close did I ask, "What the?"

In front of me were two Fury's curled into contented balls, side by side with a panel between them. In fact the panels that boxed them weren't even mirrors, but what appeared to be plexiglass. One was definitely not a reflection of the other, but that did not change the rise and fall of their chests in tandem.

_ Nothing is what it seems, eh? Onya Nicko,_ I thought dryly blowing out the torch and setting it aside. This could only be another test.

"Test, test," I mumbled absently, pacing around the boxes that occupied the centre of the room. Turning my head from side to side, I was quickly discarding my first summation that it was plexiglass. Oily rainbows rippled queerly from the corner of my vision but vanished if it caught you looking at it, bending that harsh, hospital ward white light in ways it shouldn't.

Now, I have a heavy tread, for someone as small as I, something I cursed when we played spotlight but my leaden footfalls didn't even cause their faint snuffles to change in note.

"A Test it is." My self preservation instinct to run for the nearest tree was barely kept it in check, constraining it to a very obvious flinch, and listen on. The voice reminded me of Vincent Price, low and strangely melodious, but definitely mocking. When he from his hidden vantage saw I wouldn't rise to the bait he continued. "It is a test of how well you know Fury. We are not impressed thus far, even for a human. Even when the substitute was right beneath your nose and Talon warned you. You are a poor trainer."

"A Test! The Test!" More voices shrieked in gleeful unison and the air vibrated. I shot a look back at the glint of light off the surface of the containers and was beginning to realise who, or what I was dealing with.

"Pick the right Fury, right? Or face dire consequences?"

The air prickled and the voice was peevish. "Particularly dire, for being a smartalec."

I shrugged, with a plan to tell them apart already in mind. When the Pokémon had first felt the chill Fury's doppelganger had danced around actually speaking. I had put it down to lack of translators, but Talon had been right all along.

I knelt beside the recumbent form of one of the quilava's with measured taps against the strange surface. It was not plastic, or glass, I don't think it was even physically there but somehow fooled my other senses so completely it couldn't be otherwise.

"Fury," I cooed. "Why did the exeggcute cross the road?" If that didn't get a rebuke for trying to be funny, nothing would wake her. "Come on Fury!" I implored thumping the surface. I jerked my hand back with a yelp. A low static pulse had leapt up my hand like an electric fence.

"Hypnosis!" gloated the voice.

"Hypnosis! Hypnosis!" chorused the rest in singsong voices. For mysterious and arcane voices about to inflict dire consequences at any moment, they were bloody annoying.

"Oh shut up!" I snarled at them and then whined angrily to Vincent Prince, "But that's not fair?"

"How isn't it?" he crooned back. Cold tendrils of air curled around my ankles. "Do you care for your Pokémon?"

"I'm insulted you even ask?"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes or no! Yes or no!"

"Yes!"

"What about the bond between trainer and their first Pokémon hmm? Do you believe in that?"

"She does! She does!"

Before I could answer Fury's voice, the perfect imitation of her translator that made me slap my pocket just in case. As her defiant and doggedly voice rang out in rebellion. The energy drained from by body.

_ "Just you wait! Topaz'll find me, then you'll be sorry!"_ There was a pause of unspoken voices. "_No way!__ There's an unbreakable bond between Pokémon and Trainer. She was my first. You'll see."_

Fury's voice wasn't fawning, it was like she was patiently explaining to a student the laws of equal conversion to a student and that was why he couldn't turn lead into gold. An unwavering belief you could whittle wood with.

"Surely your bond will save you now?" asked Vincent silkily.

I stood stock still, thinking of the diplomatic answer. I watched cartoons with the avid devotion of any child, but I found the plot _Saved by the Power of LOVE,_ only slightly less disgusting than _Waking__ up and Finding it Was All a Dream._ Around the campfire Fury had babbled about the _mystical bond between trainer and Pokémon_ with that same tone cartoon heroines did as the offered their hand to the defeated villain and I had filed those kind of things under short term memory.

You could believe in your dreams all you wanted, but you would still be beaten by the people who actually did something about them.

I could practically hear the atmosphere smile. He knew the truth.

Even when I was small, when the dream of Pokémon trainers had an almost magical quality I couldn't believe in the bond. Sitting crunched against the television screen as the champion received the cup and gave the same old speech of thanking the gods and people who helped them along but the last thing they always said to a greater or lesser extent was when they met their first Pokémon.

"There was like this zap! Something based between me and Electrike as our eyes met….."

"The moment I saw Blaze, I just knew we belonged side by side, thick and thin….."

"I trust Azumarill with my life, it's like we can read each others thoughts. There's this… connection… this bond."

"What happens if I choose wrong?" I said flatly, my shoulders sagging. My thoughts slowed down to a molasses trickle. And yet I felt no emotion. With the constant rollercoaster of the past few days I realised I no longer cared. No, not about Fury, but the consequences. I'd taken everything else they had thrown at me, I would choose and deal with this too.

"That one."

The wisps of cold air snaking through my ankles fled. The containers exploded outward with the musical shattering of glass! A balloon of golden, gossamer powder reminded me of the plume of ash riding a volcano explosion, taking on strange shapes as it continued to rise and inflate in slow motion, despite the ferocious turbulence you knew existed inside it.

A silhouette shook itself behind it.

Two thoughts raced simultaneously through paralysing my body and the third a cell breadth of time behind it.

_ Illusion!_

_ Fury!_

_ ..Impact!_

Fury lunged at me, springing off the floor with paws outstretched and teeth bared. My hind foot slide behind the other and my waist reacted, estranged from my mind frozen in shock. It wrenched so fast my kinked neck cried out with whiplash!

But it was enough to evade the brunt of Rabid Fury's tackle. Cracked and rubbery paws that kneaded my back when she searched for a place to sleep before a warm campfire punched my shoulder like a harvester piston propelled it further still. It was only when my belly was wrung out like wet cloth did my feet follow me along for the backwards tumble!

Beneath my flung out arm bracing for the thud I saw her land unsteadily. She whipped around and sprang again.

An identical body met shoulder to shoulder in midair with a hollow _thump!_ And both landed heavily, one stunned, one shaking of lethargy.

"Fury!" I croaked, clasping my shoulder deadened while the arm swung bonelessly. My shoes scrambled over the slippery wood, shoving towards her but a clipped bark warned me into a corner, out of harms way.

"How?" I snarled at the air, while the two Pokémon circled, moving like stalking lionesses. "You're a Ghost type aren't you? Only ghost Pokémon can speak human! You have no physical attacks!"

It was true. Ghost Pokémon had been instrumental in the development of the translator, able to understand both the nuances and tones of Pokémon speech, and could be trained since birth to speak human by vibrating the air. But they still had no physical attacks.

"Come come, Topaz!" the Vincent Price voice said jollily. "This is an easy one! _You_ should know this!"

Me? Why would I kno- "Korum," I hissed. "Konundrum."

Ghost Pokémon of Metone, they were the only ones to knew transform.

As if summoned, dust motes in the air coalesced into glowing balls, and they rain together like fat raindrops into the glowing form of Konundrum.

A jester's caul of blue and black, complete with tarnished gold cat bells sheathed a milk white face. Slanted blue eyes gazed curiously back at me while a blunted muzzle filled with crooked teeth smiled humourlessly. Beneath the caul swathed a soft white mane which inturn partially covered a chest that reminded me of insect carapaces, or dented armour, before fading into an insubstantial blue cloud wisp. From its shoulder sockets pterodactyl wings fluttered more like a cape, prehensile claws flexing. The wings themselves were cut with a pair of silly wiggle scissors from soft black velvet fluttered as it floated before me.

Sweeping a wing down, it rolled its wrist at me and bobbed, winking salaciously. _"Kun-un-nun!"_ it spoke in its natural tongue, having a deep, gravelly tenor.

"My apologies," he said sincerely in the same melodious tones. "Harm was not intended."

He flared a wing with a ball of contained lightning crackling between its claws. The Rabid Fury was caught in the side, the transformation stuttered for a moment revealing a slinking Korum, Konundrum's unevolved form.

Like a mushroom beneath a three pronged jester's hat, its whole body was clad in the alternating checks of jester's pyjamas, but still maintained its evolved forms pallid face, if a little squashed.

The Korum whined in injured tones, unable to speak Human as it again became a Quilava mirror.

"_Konun__ Undrum!"_ Konundrum scolded.

He returned to me with the same charismatic smile but I remained impassive, still trying to think my way through the lightning quick sequence and arrive in the present. "I remind you, Topaz. You are still being tested."

My head turned back to Fury and Korum. This was my test. A transformation. Fury's exact replica? How much did I know about Fury's strengths and weaknesses? Was that it?

Korum would not wait. It leapt at Fury, still sagging, tired and hungover. With head hung low, she lifted it only in time to see her own jaws pulled back to snatch her throat.

"Fury!" I shrieked. "Smokescreen!"

It had been an order shouted in shock, in reflex and immediately cursed. Cringing against the icy cold mirror panel, the acrid black smoke poured from her mouth as she fought against Korum, trying to snatch her own teeth on the flawless violet fur. I coughed and spluttered, filtering air through my togs top that I had pulled over my nose. I cursed. Now I could only hear the snarls and high pitched _Quiiiiilllls_ Rising from the centre of the cloud.

"That wasn't well planned," Konundrum tsk tsked beside me. I shot him a panicked glance, and scrambled along the wall, into the cloud. At least now I could see the whirling silhouettes, and Fury's could be made out by the glitter of her collar, twinkling in the flashes of fire. What was Fury's strongest attack?

"Ember Fury!" I shouted as Fury's claws slashed across her counterpart's nose and escaping as it loosed a cry. She hesitated almost imploringly, barking furiously but cried out mournfully when she realised I didn't understand. Almost reluctantly she loosed the thick flurry of embers. Korum, trying to stalk behind Fury, was turned on, but it leapt through the barrage unharmed. His full weight smashed into Fury's lowered head and she rolled groaning in pain.

"No!" I moaned in unison, burying my heads in my hands and ripping viciously at the hair they clutched. "Fire verses fire! It's unaffected! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Fury, bounded over the head of the Korum as it lunged in a tackle attack. The smoke was dispersing and it scrambled to turn around and lunge at Fury again. Its legs tangled under body and tripped, smacking its head against floor and dazing. Fury, taking the time to rest turned a soulful garnet eye on me.

_ Calm down Topaz. I can survive until you think of a plan. But just calm down._

_ WOMP!_ With her attention on me, Korum ploughed into her side. Panic threatened to dissolve me again and shout out another hasty order but a distance overcame me. I had to distance myself to do what was best for Fury. This far away Topaz observed the two scrambling to get up. Korum was clumsy and managed to smack itself in the head with its own hind foot. While it had pushed itself up, Fury was putting space between them.

_ Fury is sick, slow. Korum is clumsy, but it has more strength behind its attacks… because they are less controlled?_

_ Korum__ was unused to a physical body._

Bingo.

"Fury! You're more agile!"

Korum snapped at me in defiance and threw itself, head down at Fury. She scrambled away but it sideswiped her sending her hindquarters spinning away. Her hoarse breathing tore at my heart as she rose again. "Stand your ground Fury!"

Gawd. One more hit like that last one and she was gone. I could have been condemning Fury to being fainted and I would not trust the berries again anymore that I would trust an oncoming roadtrain. "Stand tall Fury, just catch your breath and obey me instantly! Korum can_not_ touch you!"

I tried desperately to pitch my voice so that I was talking to Fury rather than goad Korum. That's what made it so effective.

It screeched, I could hear the claws scratching into the wood for traction, grabbing the ground and shooting off it with head down to knock Fury into a world of blackness.

"Duck!" I screamed hysterically. Fury's nose smacked the floor in her eagerness and Korum's braced head rushed over it. Its feet could not. Though the claws scratched down her chest, its body flipped over hers and was airborne. And as it travelled overhead, Fury kicked out. Kicked like a mule into Korum's quilava chest and drove it even harder into the mirror pane behind her.

It slid squeaking down the panel, shimmering and returning to the high pitched croak. "_Korrrruuum__!"_

"Well done Topaz," Konundrum smiled hugely. He clapped his claws together which made a dry papery sound. "But you are not done yet, though you will not be confronted by mine or my own. Talon still wanders, because of you. And Charlotte faces her own demons. Still, have you learned something?"

I nodded numbly, flopping onto my knees and welcoming a limping Fury into my arms. I hugged her. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I was a stupid little girl for panicking."

Reaching into my back pocket I retrieved my father's badge box and withdrew her translator. Fury nodded with a broad and grateful smile as I hooked it on.

_ "Gee, that was close,"_ she purred, close to exhaustion.

"You knew, didn't you? Fire attacks wouldn't work. You tried to tell me." She hesitated, as if on the border of a lie, but then nodded with a helpless shrug of her shoulders. "Then don't listen to me. If you know better, do what you think will work. That kick was pretty bloody awesome!"

"_Pretty bloody awesome,_" she agreed.

I looked up at the mirthful form of Konundrum. "What do you mean by yours and your own?"

"I am trained. Trained to speak, trained to battle. My trainer, Sim, leaves me with five Korum's to guard this portion of the tower." Looking up, four other pairs of eyes had misted into view. One disconnected orb winked disturbingly back. "There are other teams here. Should you meet another Konundrum, say my name and they shall let you pass, but my name will mean nothing to the Korum's beneath them. I am Phantasm. And, a parting gift for a battle well fought, though I can't help you Topaz."

He glowed, shaking his head with bells jingling. As he did, both Fury and the Korum she had battled glittered and drew themselves up. The glow faded and Fury shook off the sparkles that still clung to her fur. "Heal Bell," Phantasm explained.

Finally I stood up and reached out to shake Konundrum's claw, feeling beginning to creep into my arm again. Unfamiliar with the gesture, he didn't try to stop me take his claw until too late. It was like grabbing a handful of ice and being forced to hold on even when it burned your skin. I yanked it back, staring at the bright blue burns on my palms fade, still unfeeling.

"My apologies again," he said regretfully. On the opposite side a panel swung open. He paused momentarily in decision and then said, "Talon is that way, listen for the laughter it will draw you to the end."

Even as he spoke, his voice faded and his form dissolved.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"Fury, I don't like this."

_ "Gee Topaz, I'm thrilled with the idea of tracking maniacal laughter through some whacked out maze with murderous pitfalls. I'm just sorry we didn't bring a picnic."_

"Ha-di-ha," I said morosely. "But we haven't heard a Korum for five minutes. We're wandering blind."

_ "No, there's still laughter ahead."_ Fury rose onto her haunches, her ears turning like satellite dishes. "_But it's not the same guy."_

We shared a look of apprehension. Phantasm's words haunted us….Okay, poor choice of words, bad pun, but it was true. _Mine and my own._ Unconsciously my treads had become lighter to avoid any unwanted attention and my breathing became long and shallow. When I realised this I chuckled breathily. I had slipped into _Game_ mode, reserved for hide and seek and spotlight.

Holding up the slowly dimming torch to a T junction, I see-sawed between this reaction being absolutely ridiculous or perfectly apt.

Fury paused with her eyes closed and listened. _"Bugger."_

"What? You lost it?"

_ "No, we're closer than ever."_ Without waiting she turned left, the hackles on her shoulders rising and her tinderspots glowing red in case they needed to ignite in a hurry. _ "If I can get them in their ghost forms it'll be easy."_

I nodded and unslung my empty canteen from my shoulders. As a weapon it was as useful as cotton buds but it might make them hesitate long enough for Fury to get in a first blow. Now I could hear it, harsh and taunting Korum cries making no effort to conceal themselves. We slowed, taking each new panel with deliberate caution and both felt we couldn't risk talking.

"_Ruuuum__ Ruuuuum!"_

Fury placed her paw on a panel and I pushed it open, stepping inside and –

SLAM!

An invisible force ripped the panel from my fingers and I only just missed having them jammed and sliced off in the door. The glass rattled and the shrieks rose to howls!

"Trapped! Trapped! Trapped! Trapped! Trapped!" I snarled in a thoughtless litany as I paced the tiny box we were trapped in, two by one panels, thrusting against each desperately.

_ "Very observant Topaz!_ _ Now get your head on the job. LOOK!"_

Fury flared her flames making me wince in the harsh light. The mirrors became very foggy and translucent, enough to see Talon staring back dispassionately.

"Talon!" I cried with relief, throwing myself against the panel and banging on it. "Talon! You're alright. Look, I can get us out! I, I…. huh?"

My voice had a strange tincture to it, a multi-quality. Talon looked over his shoulder, and I followed the gaze. I watched my eyeballs bulge in my sockets. I watched me touch my nose, brush my ear and finally point accusingly.

"SHE'S A FAKE!" "SHE'S A FAKE!"

"I AM NOT! YOU ARE!" "I AM NOT! YOU ARE!"

"STOP COPYING ME!" "STOP COPYING ME!"

"_Topaz, you're making an ass of yourself," _the Fury's pointed out calmly to their trainers. I guess having already been face to face with one doppelganger she wasn't going to be shocked by this one but I had never _ever_ heard of a Pokémon using transform to become a human.

"_She's right Topaz," _ Talon mocked icily, very clearly looking at me. "_We wouldn't want you making an _arse_ of yourself, would we?_ _ I know you're the real one, but I don't care."_

"DON'T CARE!" "DON'T CARE!" my doppelganger and I shrieked, making a lively attempt to break through the glass and strangle the pidgey.

He ignored me and faced the fake. _ "Come on out."_

"No!"

Fury gasped as twin Korum's morphed back and flew through the panel, launching simultaneous Confusion Rays and Shadow Balls! The bright rolling rays of Confusion Ray engulfed the arrogant pidgey and his eyes crossed with a look of dizziness and it was only because of a drunken sway that he avoided the brunt of the burning violet ball that raced over his crest and singeing his eyebrows.

That was just the beginning of my problems as the rays permeated the surrounding rooms and Fury moaned. Her eyes lost their focus and she took an experimental step forward. She stood but weaved as if trying to compensate for a spinning room. My vision leapt from her to Talon, being pummelled by spectral white meteors, a Mana Siege that reduced accuracy and health little by little. They ignored his feeble protests as he shuffled away but unable to escape.

_ "Why?_ _We're Pokémon. I..the humans-"_ He was cut off as the second Korum paused, another Shadowball swelling it its upturned claws.

"Our loyalty lies not with you, Pokémon or no!" the air vibrated and it flung the ball crackling and flaming with ghost energy. Talon grunted and was pinned to a panel. More mana rained down around him and whimpered with each tiny burn.

I watched, trying to think distantly, trying to find a way to get to him. The only way, was through the glass.

"Fury, get back," I commanded levelling. She shambled to the back of the room and I fished through my pockets. They came out reluctantly holding my father's badge case. I swallowed thickly. Did I want to do this? My fingers traced the words _Inka__ Tninka Pitjikala_ lovingly.

_ "Hel-"_

I wheeled and hurled, case and glass exploding into a thousand silver slivers. And I through it, warding off the still flying glass. My fist swung in a wide haymaking, passing through a Korum with craptacular results. The muscles let go and flopped as momentum carried me full circle. Stumbling to regain balance I picked up my arm. All the muscles ached like frostbite.

"_Top-"_

"Stay there Fury! I have shoes on! Stay there!" I turned on one Korum. "I know Phantasm! He sent us this way!"

"We owe Phantasm no allegiance," it grinned nastily and sharp, biting winds lashed the room. I let out a low moan, hugging myself. They were almost paralysing.

Suddenly flames licked out and were trapped amongst the gusts, whipping around the room too. I threw myself to the side, but the flames singed my legs and hair. The flames stopped almost immediately when Fury saw how wild it was but the ghost pokémon were distracted. I grunted and shoved off the wall, and hunched over Talon's prone body, shielding him from more attacks.

_ They won't deliberately hurt a human!_ I thought triumphantly. "Hit it Fury!"

The winds still roared and Fury's ember attack roared with them, combining into a firestorm. The hot air and winds fed on each other. Heat boiled the air into mirage waves and my skin broke into an instant sweat. Beneath me I could smell Talons feathers smouldering and hear his painful moans.

"Stop the attacks or we harm the human," hissed a Korum. Fury ignored them and exhaled another gout of flame. Visibly the Korum were weakening and inside I applauded.

Incensed by the defiance, my confidence they wouldn't hurt a human was evaporated. The second Korum released Mana Siege again with my vulnerable back the target. The first comet of energy struck my lower back and my guts turned to water, numbed with the same pins and needle sensation as my arm. After it the others just rolled into another icy stab that exploded and drove an icy dagger into my insides. My heart beat out a furious arrhythmia, labouring to pump under the chill suffusing my body.

"Stop!"

I didn't so much as hear as feel the voice, sinking deep into my frozen bones. "Phantasm," I stammered through chattering teeth. "I know Phantasm."

"Phantasm? So be it." Taking a moment for feeling to flood back into my frigid limbs, I sat up. Another konundrum looked around at the rising smoke, scorch marks, scattered glass and dying winds with a puzzled expression. "You and you. Leave. Human child, please forgive the korum. They are newly caught and not yet trained. My trainer will be _most_ disappointed with them." From the sound of the inflection, disappointed was only the start of it.

"Make it up to me and heal Talon," I demanded, lifting up the pidgey. The Konundrum's eyebrow rose but shook his crown nether the less. Feathers burnt by chill and heat unfurled like new and his eyes, half-lidded, opened wide. Scuffing away glass underfoot, I gently set him down, waiting to see what would happen. Remorse? Anger? He was ball of contradictions.

He in fact did the last thing I expected of him which was remaining tactfully silent.

I sighed thankfully, hoping it wasn't something we had to speak about to understand.

"Now take us out. I've had enough of this level and you will lead me to the staircase that will take us to the next floor." I stood up abruptly, setting a baleful eye on the new ghost Pokemon. He regarded me as a rude upstart, but he also understood I had a right to ask. I had been attacked.

"Agreed," he said simply.

Looking around grimly and brushing off the glass embedded in my cotton legwarmers, I bent and picked up the largest wedge of wood I could find. _nka__ Pit_ could still be made out. Everything else was in splinters and a lost cause. My belly ached dully with homesickness. What would I tell Dad?

For the first time in a week, I thought about being without my family for the first time, and for the barest instant, thought of quitting.

Finally I crunched over the floor and lifted Fury up, carrying her over the shards then bent to allow Talon to scramble onto my shoulders. A panel squeaked open and we followed Konundrum silently through. We winded the mixed up panels for less than five minutes when Konundrum stopped and rested his hand on a panel.

"This is it. On the other side are the staircase and a trainer for you to battle." I groaned. I couldn't. I wouldn't. "Rules are rules," it reminded stoutly and dispersed. With him faded the ghostly white light and soon we three where left only with an after image painted on the darkness.

Fury nudged the panel with her nose, looking up at me. I returned the smile, grateful there wasn't pity or even concern in it, just weary relief at reaching the end.

"_Just open the door."_

I rolled my eyes up at Talon but pushed the panel wide. Charlie sat spread legged in the corner, looking just as drained as myself nibbling a bowl of noodles and uncharacteristically quiet. Instead we just nodded.

"Battle?"

"Won. Her spearow is well trained." The voice came from the staircase and a woman appeared warmly dressed in the same slate gi as Niko. "I'm Chow. Feel free to eat, your friend has well and truly earned it. And from the looks of it so have you," she added as an afterthought.

"Too bloody right," I said feeling insulted, but couldn't bring myself to argue.

I sat down opposite Charlie and poured water and noodles for my Pokemon. Target was safe and rubbed against me affectionately. I flushed faintly as I realised I had forgotten all about him, but drew him close, petting him fondly and taking my own tentative sips of the noodles.

"What Pokemon did she have?" I asked offhandedly.

"Two belsprouts and a weepingbel," she answered, soft and husky as if it had taken all her energy to force the air through her larynx, raising her head. My mouth formed an 'O' of surprise but snapped it shut again. There were tear tracks down her face and claw marks around her neck. More.

"You alright?" I broached carefully, even uncomfortably.

She nodded. "They separated Mave. I looked for him and I found," her voice broke but then carried on in a rush. "He looked dead, curled up in a corner, not breathing, not moving. And then these little blue things attacked. Ghost pokemon, except they knew _transform_. They transformed into Maverick. The one in the corner was a transformation too." No wonder the claw marks looked familiar. "Mave saved us. All my Pokemon knew were physical attacks and…" she trailed off and her gaze strayed to the blue ball snoozing happily in the corner. There were no marks on him at all and I wondered how badly he had been hurt fighting off three korums by himself.

"They were korums. Metonia ghost Pokemon, and it was a transform attack." We sighed in unison and I looked to staircase.

"I'm so sick of this place," Charlie confessed, mopping up the last of the flavoured water with a chunk of bread. She held it in front of her lips for a moment, before stuffing it in and chewing lethargically.

I rested my chin between Target's ears, and closed my eyes. For once, I was the voice of optimism. "Only one more level to go."

_ 5th June 2005_

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